《The Good Necromancer》


 Prolouge: Magic, Gods, and the Princes of Chicago

    My name is Daniel Greyman. The current year is 7 C.E. (Common Era). That would translate as 2052, I guess. Everything before 2045 is referred to as B.M.R. which stands for Before Magic''s Return. That''s what the historians are calling it at least. Regardless, as you might have guessed, about seven years ago, everything changed.


    At that time I was an apprentice mortician in northern Indiana. Small funeral home, where we covered the needs for seven counties, plus a little bit more. We took calls in southern Michigan, and north western Ohio as well. We never actually had much business, which I suppose is good. I mean, no one wants to die really. But it was our business, to take care of funerals and the dearly departed, and what little business we had we excelled at.


    But then, magic came back. And when it did, it wasn''t a pretty transition. Suddenly, nothing electronic would work. Other machines still worked, like the older manual cars, and guns. But television, communications, even lights, all went dark and never came back on. I stayed in the area, and I''ve heard all kinds of reasons for everything from back country Amish and Mennonites claiming that this is the punishment from God for using too advanced technology, to the conspiracy theorists who think that it was some kind of EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) weapon that went horribly wrong.


    However, everyone noticed the changes. The first to pay attention were those who were living in the cities at the time. People were suddenly capable of throwing fireballs, and creating tornados by waving their hand. Damage in the first couple of weeks after the change was near catastrophic. Especially considering that most pump systems were shut down when the electricity left. As a matter of fact, the majority of emergency services wouldn''t work, as they relied in some form on electricity, and this caused a lot of problems. Rioters, Looters, and Anarchists running rampant, the police doing their best to limit the damage.


    When the communication network went down, the federal government basically collapsed. Power devolved to the highest local authority, with military leaders taking precedence over civil authorities. And that was always with mixed results, after all how do you disarm a man that can create and throw fireballs with a thought. How do you calm down a girl who can create a thunderstorm with a wave of her hand?


    Unfortunately, in a lot of places, the solution was to kill first, ask questions later. Which caused a large number of the mages to fight back against the army, and the national guard. Which caused even more destruction. But then, it got even worse.


    I only know what I''ve heard from travelers, either those passing through, trying to find a new home, or the very few that are trying to establish trade between the cities. But from what they say, the elemental mages were only the start. They were causing so many problems, just trying to get a handle on their power, and learn to use it safely, that everyone missed the more insidious threats.


    New Orleans was one of the first to go up. Refugees from their came through almost a year after the change. Necromancers, no one could figure out how many, started raising the dead in uncontrollable numbers. Within a few days, the number of undead rivaled the number of living. More than that, somehow they managed to create Vampires, and a myriad group of other undead, that started to also harass the living.


    From what the refugees told everyone around here, a water mage saved what was actually left of the city, sinking the rest of it back into the bayou. That saved a lot of people, but it still wasn''t enough. Almost a week after the sinking, more undead started coming out of the water. Now there is the "city" of Water''s Grave, filled with undead, and dark magic.


    Around Water''s Grave, a set of towns built themselves up. Centered and led by the largest, which built itself in the former Saint''s Stadium, they call themselves collectively the Saint''s Ring.


    But that was only the start of the problems. We''ve had refugees and traveler''s from almost every major city come through in the last seven years. Each one has had a story of some sort of destruction, undead being probably the least important problem. Some kind of summoner destroyed most of Manhattan when they managed to summon a sea monster of some kind. From Washington D.C. was the epicenter for some kind of magical plague, which wiped out everything from Baltimore down to Norfolk and Virginia Beach, than all the way west to Richmond. That entire area is under quarantine.


    In other areas monsters, both sentient, and not, started showing up. Florida became Ogre and Goblin country, with tribes of them taking over the entire state within days. Some refugees said that the skyscrapers in New York have harpies and other monsters in them, and there are rumors of a whole group of dragons in Upstate New York. We never heard from Syracuse or Rochester, or from anywhere North of New York City, so that might just be true.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    We haven''t seen anyone from to far out west either. We had a group from St. Louis a while ago, however they chose to move on. They told us that St. Louis was attacked by a horde of Undead, and then another Horde of monsters attacked. They weren''t sure about the type of monster, but they seemed to think it was Orcs.


    I figure that with the Great Plains right there, a number of monster tribes probably moved into the area. I suspect something really big moved into the desert area between Texas and California, as it''s mostly open dry ground, with very little water or much of anything really, in between. Plus, we haven''t heard anything from west Texas out to California.


    I also figure something, or things, moved into the Rocky Mountains. If that''s the case, then it is dangerous enough that it''s either killed or chased off everyone trying to cross. Not a clue as to what it could be, as we haven''t had anyone from that far west through our area yet.


    The monsters were part of the bigger problem. The other part of the bigger problem was the greatest monster though. Human Greed. When the military took over areas, and the federal governement collapsing, it set the stage for a downgrade in society. Several of the military leaders established themselves as warlords and the like, while others took charge of the city they were in and created city-states. Some of the back country folk started forming community militias, and moved closer together for the protection. Guns still worked, though they had limited utility against a lot of the monsters. Undead don''t really care if they''ve taken bullet wounds, they still chase after you. Magic works, but a lot of people still don''t trust it, as too much damage and chaos was caused when the change started.


    Now the East Coast, and everything East of the Mississippi really, has been divided up by the city states. Former State lines don''t mean anything, and most places have reverted from our representative democracy, to fuedalism, and aristocracy. People are willing to follow the strongest around, if it means protection from the monsters. Most mages have figured out the basics of their power by now. Some, like myself, have even taken to learning new forms of magic, through a myriad number of tutors, not all of them good.


    And yes, I am a mage as well. A necromancer to be exact, though I am far removed from the twisted bastards that use the dead for personal gain. You see, the Gods also returned with magic, though few enough know of that for now. They, from what I understand, arranged themselves all into one large pantheon, kind of like a United Nations for the Gods. And they all have a sub group within this group, based upon their domain.


    And the Gods of Death are sort of pissed.


    Anubis, my patron, talked with me a bit about it. "Basically, none of us like mortals who do what these necromancers are doing. The dead are supposed to be given eternal rest, but these necromancers, to raise the numbers they have, are capturing the souls of the dead and binding them to bodies. That is only acceptable under certain conditions, such as someone volunteering for that, or if a God gives you a soul that needs to earn atonement."


    Anubis noticed me early on, because I was not only a necromancer, but a mortician, even if I was only an apprentice. "I don''t have enough priests to be worried about whether or not you''re an apprentice or not. You know what to do and how to do it, and now you have magic to help you with everything, instead of the technology you were using."


    Anubis recruited me about two years ago, when enough magic had saturated the world that they could materialize easily. He actually found me trying to figure out my magic, and taught me not only how to control it, but how to use it as a true Necromancer, not the twisted version that most necromancers became.


    So now I''m a Necromancer Priest of Anubis. Granted, I don''t tell anyone really, and I don''t ask for anything really either. Though everyone is very grateful for the fact that for some reason the dead stay dead in the area.


    I''m currently living in a small town that formed up after the change. The locals gathered together about three "villages" and all moved into one town, then swore loyalty to Chicago. Chicago, or as it is more formally known now, the City-State of Chicago, controls large areas around Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, as well as a bit of Wisconsin. They''ve also got a small freshwater navy going on, to help patrol the rivers and the lake for monsters and bandits. The former Admiral who took charge ended up becoming Prince Alfred.


    Granted, he didn''t live long as Prince. I think the stress got to him, but he died about a year ago, after being Prince for four years. Also true, he was an older guy, but thankfully, his son was in Chicago as well. His son was a Navy Captain, and well liked and respected by most of the military people. Can''t say it changes much for me honestly, as the Princes of Chicago are about as far removed from me as can be.


    Why am I writing all of this down. Well, I definitely agree with Anubis about one thing. When I die, I would like the story of my life to survive me, and maybe help teach those who come later. Because no one should have to go through the hell we went through to get here.

 Flashback: Lessons with Anubis

    ***Two Years Ago***


    "So," the massive man with the head of a jackal says," What do you know of the Necromantic Arts?"


    We are in a graveyard that''s well away from any of the regular settlements, and a bit off the beaten track for anyone to go to as well. Not a bad place really, quiet, and the tombstones were obviously well cared for, at least until a couple of years ago.


    "Well, it''s the magic of death," I say, somewhat nervous to being taught by a GOD.


    He laughs," First off, relax. I''m not going to eat you, or anything like that. As for your answer, it is both right, and completely wrong. I will explain."


    "Necromancy started as a way to reach beyond the realm of the living and ask questions of those who had died. This is still the easiest method of using Necromancy, as it only truly requires one to see and speak with the dead." Anubis begins, speaking in an almost professor like fashion.


    "Necromancy has since evolved, and the actual art of Necromancy is split into four schools. Death, Soul, Blood, and Bone. Each of these schools give Necromancers unique spells and ways of using magical energy that other spellcasters can''t easily compare with. That is not to say that Necromancers are better than other spellcasters, or that they are more powerful. They just have access to a different form of magical energy that other spellcasters have a hard time understanding."


    I speak up for a moment, "Just like how most people would never want to be a mortician, cause you have to work with dead bodies?"


    He smiles, I think. Kinda hard to tell when the face is a Jackal''s. "Exactly so. Now, to truly understand Necromancy as an art, you have to realize that Necromancers are not supposed to raise armies of the dead. True, it happens, and other necromancers have gone on to make, no pun intended, grave mistakes. However, a Necromancer''s calling is supposed to be more similar to a mortician''s in practice, if not reality. They are supposed to guide the souls of the dead on to the next world, and keep their remains from doing anything to the still living. This is more involved than you would probably expect."


    "For one, this includes just carrying out funeral rights. Giving the bodies of the dead closure after the soul has moved on, helps to prevent that body from being used as an Undead. But there is more. A master Necromancer also collects the materials he needs from the bodies of the dead. Each area of Necromancy requires it''s namesake to be used properly."


    "Blood magic requires blood to be used in the spells. This includes drawing out magic formations using the blood, and other more esoteric means. However the effects that can be obtained are extraordinary. Blood magic is the necromantic double edged sword. On one hand, blood magic spells can be used to heal and regrow or replace organs, various tissues, and cure various diseases. On the other, you can inflict those same diseases on others, use your enemies still flowing blood to cause immense pain, and perform rituals that can create monsters that feed or otherwise require blood. Indeed, it is through Blood magic that the first vampires were created, as well as Lycanthropy."


    "Now, the first benefit of Blood magic, is that it can be used to drain a corpse of all of it''s fluids. Once you obtain a high enough level of skill, it is also possible to remove the organs with this method, instead of having to cut open the corpse to remove the organs. Additional benefits of practicing in Blood magic is that most diseases, from the common cold to Cancer, can not affect you. Your blood will only transmit or carry what you tell it, and thus those diseases and poisons as well, don''t really have an effect."


    "Moving on," he says," Bone magic. You can call this the Necromancer''s artifact creation magic. Every type of spellcaster has some way to create artifacts, such as wands, staves, scrolls, and more. Unfortunately for most, those methods normally cost quite a bit of money. They require rare materials, advanced magical knowledge, and tools that are capable of being used on the materials they''ve gathered."


    He chuckles," However, Bone Magic is different, and it is why on most worlds Necromancers are as respected as they are feared. Using bone magic, you can create a magic artifact out of any bone you have come across. Granted, if you put a high level spell on a regular bone, the bone will break easier, but it is possible. What''s more, is that anyone can use these bones and obtain the same effects as the creator, which isn''t always true with the other crafting magics. The only requirements on the caster are that they have bones of sufficient size for the spell being inscribed, and the tools to carve onto those bones. Oh, you still need advanced magical knowledge, but it''s easier than other crafting magics in that you just have to learn how to put the spell you want onto a bone. Some spells are also easier than others."


    "Bone magic does have it''s dark side I suppose you could say. A sufficiently powerful or skilled bone necromancer is able to reshape bones, repairing them, destroying them, or altering their structure, which has many uses. They can eventually carve bones using just their magic, and with sufficient skill, pull bones out of still living creatures. It''s not just a crafting magic, and that''s why bone Necromancers are feared. But their focus on this facet of the art helps by allowing them to create easy to use artifacts, which has earned a modicum of respect for Necromancers on many worlds."Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    "The last two areas of Necromancy are probably the most dangerous. First, is Soul Magic. Soul Magic was originally created with the best of intentions, in an attempt to get the souls of those who had died to quickly pass on. However, this was very quickly manipulated. Now there are two branches of Soul Magic. Soul magic that allows a Necromancer to aid in the departure of souls that haven''t moved on, and the darker branch, which specializes in using the souls of the dead to do terrible things.


    Anubis sighs at this point,"So many promising necromancers fall down the route of Dark Soul magic that it is difficult to balance out the death energies. They are lured in by the promise of easy power, and dark soul magic indeed has that. However, using the souls of others leaves a black mark on your soul. This black mark spreads the more you use Dark Soul magic, until your soul is black as night. Once that occurs, the necromancer dies, and becomes an undead himself. His soul is turned into a small gemstone, and until it is destroyed he can not be killed. And it is near impossible for a lich, which is what they become, to destroy their own soul completely. Once they do, there is no afterlife for them, and they die forever."


    He looks at me,"Promise me my newest Priest, that you will not go down that dark path. All of my priests are dedicated to wiping out those necromancers that have, and it is what I will ask you to start doing here once your training is complete."


    I look him in the eye. I see the raw emotion in his face, and manage to pull myself away from his gaze before I get drawn into the trap that the eyes of any God holds, that of utter fascination. I look back at him after a moment and say," I promise, to never give in to the Darkness that pervades the Soul, and to hunt those that do down and end their suffering, and the suffering that they give unto others."


    I have no idea why I said it like that, or how I knew those words, but Anubis looks at me, and says," I accept your promise, and will give you my aid, when asked, to deal with those who have broken the Laws of the Dead. I will honor your oath, and help to guide those who have suffered that you have freed, onward to eternity."


    The moment holds for a few moments, and then Anubis sighs. "It''s been a long time since I''ve personally given that oath, but I am glad that it was you who took it. Thank you."


    "Now," he says, clearly changing the subject again," The last area of magic. This can be dangerous for an entirely different reason, and it is one that the Gods are always split on. Death magic. Death Magic is the direct manipulation of death energy for various effects. This is the magic that allows reanimation, but it is also so much more."


    "To understand Death magic, you must understand that everything that dies gives of some amount of Death energy. Necromancer''s naturally accumulate this energy, just like other mages accumulate elemental energies, and priests are able to accumulate divine energy. However, what this means is that the more deaths in an area, the more energy a necromancer can absorb. And if they are emotional deaths, such as a battlefield, or the scene of a serial murderer, that death energy is much more potent, as the more emotional a person is at their death, the more death energy they release."


    "The art of Death magic is that it focuses on gathering, using, and creating death energy. The creating death energy part is where things start to get dangerous, as it has led to Serial Killers, wars, and even genocide in the past. These people have wanted to kill as many people as possible, so that they might get as much death energy as they could. The reasons for needing that much energy vary, but the Gods are split on the subject of Death Energy and Death magic. The simplest reason, is that some of those necromancers gather death energy from sacrifices to their Gods. They offer the God these sacrifices, which can boost a God''s overall power considerably, and the necromancers take the death energy from killing someone for their god. It''s a twisted system."


    "However, other Gods, especially the Gods of Death, have other methods for their necromancer followers to gather Death Energy," he says, as he waves his hands and four jars appear. "These are Canopic Jars. Any Canopic Jar that you make will be protected by me, and my avatars, and they will have representative heads on each one. Four organs go into these jars, and they are the lungs, the stomach, the liver, and the intestines. Once they are sealed in the proper mortuary ritual, which I''ll teach you, each jar will give off a small amount of Death Energy. The more jars, the more Death Energy they give off. And completing the mortuary rituals will give me some power too, which is always good."


    "The canopic jars aren''t just my thing, as Osiris  also has his Necromancers use canopic jars, however his have the heads of the Four Guardian Gods, the sons of Horus that protect the four directions and the four organs. The other Gods of Death all have some trick that allows them to gather or create more Death Energy. And death energy can be used to fuel other spells, including elemental spells if a necromancer ever learned them. There''s only been a few of those though."


    "To be fair," Anubis sighs," A lot of Necromancy is just like any other area of magic. Yes it can do some truly amazing things, but the most impressive ones will always be over the heads of the common folk, so you''ll have to lie. Tell them certain things, and those things become what the people believe, even if they''re wrong. Vampires fearing garlic? Vampire spread that story so people would give him more. It went on to other worlds and has been a major factor in vampire myths, but it all started because one vampire liked garlic."


    I kind of stare at Anubis for a minute. How did this get so off track so quickly? And then I realize, it didn''t. Not really. As a Necromancer, the easiest ways for me to do things, to get around without being seen as a menace to society by the settlements, I''d had to do a lot of things to keep people from finding out my secret. That''s all that Anubis just said. Everyone has secrets that help them, and to keep others from using those secrets against them, they created rumors, and myths, so it became near impossible to distinguish fact from fiction.


    At that point, I knew I wouldn''t be able to stay here forever. But that was okay. I''d just have to prepare everything before I left. Everything, from personal preparations, to making sure that the area would at least be safe from the Undead if I wasn''t here.


    I bow to Anubis, "Teach me."

 Chapter One: Promotion and a Mission

    Current Time


    I carefully take my knife and cut from almost the man¡¯s shoulder, to the solar plexus. It is more difficult when I consider that though the Change made everyone loose some weight, this guy has plenty of fat on him. Thankfully, he¡¯s a criminal, and taking his head in to be identified will let me get the reward for his death.


    As I cut from the other direction, I call on my magic to start the first step of the funeral process. Blood flows out from the open wound and seems to create a narrow stream going straight into a specifically prepared set of oilskins. As a necromancer, and one who practices blood magic, I know how to drain the blood from a body efficiently, and blood from a sentient being is an unfortunate necessity for many of the more powerful Blood Magic spells. And as I refuse to kill someone who hasn¡¯t earned it, so my stocks of human blood are almost always pitifully low.


    I hear a chuckle from my teacher,¡± Good, you¡¯re restocking. I thought it would be months before you got more and we could try the next ritual.¡±


    I smile. The last Blood Magic Ritual we did was able to attach itself to a large eagle claw that I had managed to get my hands on. The unique part was that the guy who sold it to me had no idea what he had on his hands, which was a Harpy Eagle Claw. Harpy Eagles are predator birds that tend to nest near harpies. They avoid the humanoid monsters, instead taking certain smaller animals as their prey. However, due to the proximity in which they live to a magical creature, their bones tend to be stronger than a regular birds, while still being very light weight.


    I managed to get the blood magic ritual, Blood Regeneration, onto the claw which made me immensely happy. However, the ritual did take up the last of my precious stock of sentient blood. At least this blood was from a human, the last batch, which I¡¯m pretty sure had something to do with why the Blood Regeneration ritual worked, was from a Troll. They¡¯re sentient, even if they are dumb as fuck. And they have a natural regeneration which is just as amazing as they are dumb.


    I¡¯m not fond of Trolls. They have a tendency to eat people, and leave the pieces all over the place.


    I continue with my work, cutting downward from the solar plexus to the about six inches above the groin. Peeling back the flesh from his organs, I pull out my first Canopic Jar. On it are drawn the wards that will, once linked up with the other three jars, ensure the souls of the dead will travel swiftly to the afterlife. As I start pulling the man¡¯s lungs out first, I start the Chants of Banishment. This man was wicked enough, that I don¡¯t feel any remorse about using everything from his corpse to protect those in this area.


    I had come across his wanted poster about two weeks ago. Four dead, all children. All killed by this man, who apparently was linked with the disappearances of several more people. I didn¡¯t know about the others, but for just the children that he had killed, he had earned my enmity.


    It took me till two days ago to track him down. The reason the Wanted poster had gone up was because he had skipped out of town ahead of the Lawbringers in Chicago. The Lawbringers were the current equivalent of a police force, most of them being paladins or clerics to one of the Gods that had set up shop in Chicago. That would be Poseidon, Maui, and Sobek. All of them were considered water gods, but they had enough differences between them that everyone was happy.


    Of course, my teacher could have had a temple there, but unfortunately he and his compatriots aren¡¯t viewed in the best of lights by the populace currently.


    The Chants of Banishment is a divine soul magic spell that directly gives the soul of a deceased to the gods. In my case, that means this man¡¯s soul goes to Anubis, and then he will figure it out from there. Honestly, pretty convenient for me, and I know this guy will get the true punishment he deserves. You don¡¯t mess with kids in my opinion.


    As I finish up the process of creating my Canopic Jars, by pulling the last of his intestines out and placing them in the final jar, I quickly focus my Bone Magic to remove the bones from the corpse. Those I stack to one side, which I will later place in my bag of minor holding. Thing cost me a fortune, but it made hiding things like my bones and the bags filled with blood so much easier. I actually have three, one for blood and bones each, and then my personal one.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    After I¡¯ve got all of the bones out, and I¡¯m in the process of drying them, I turn to the funeral pyre that I built for this occasion. I arrange the bones in good positions around the fire, as they will dry out completely faster that way. Then I place the body on the pyre, and taking my lighter I light the straw I packed underneath the wood.


    As the pyre slowly goes up in flames, it dries out the bones, and with a little more bone magic, I speed up the drying process even more, so that after only ten minutes I¡¯m able to start picking all of them up.


    I can feel the Canopic Jars starting to generate the death energy that will sustain the wards that are inscribed on the jars. I¡¯ve take to placing the jars all around the local cemetaries and graveyards, as once I¡¯ve created them and gotten the wards on them, the wards can protect up to a mile around the location from undead possibly rising, and the other ward I have on them, a Blood magic ¡®Don¡¯t see me¡¯ ward.


    ¡°Well,¡± I say, partially to myself, partially to Anubis, my teacher, God, and occasionally, Friend.


    ¡°Well what?¡± he says back to me. We have a mental link that allows us to speak over long distances without me performing my prayer rites.


    ¡°Don¡¯t give me that!¡± I say, laughing,¡± You¡¯re the one who told me to talk to you after I finished this job. What¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°Hmmm. Well a couple of things really,¡± he says, deliberately being evasive.


    ¡°Fine,¡± I say,¡± Oh, Great and Masterful Anubis, your humble and obedient servant asks what news you have for him, so that he may take action.¡±


    I can almost sense the head nod, before I hear the chuckle. ¡°So first off, I would like to congratulate you on completing basic training. You are now officially a Necromancer, a Priest, and my servant. Before this you had only achieved the rank of Novitiate, however now I am proud to tell you that you are at the Cleric rank in my priesthood.¡±


    I blink, before smiling, ¡°Really, you think I¡¯m ready?¡±


    He sighs, ¡°I do, but even if I didn¡¯t we don¡¯t have much choice. The other Gods of Death and I are in agreement, on this matter, and that is your first task.¡±


    I stay, looking at the fire. I know he¡¯ll get to the point in a moment, but this is one of those things he¡¯s already told me about. Once a priest makes it to the cleric rank, they may be given jobs from the Gods or the upper priesthood. Since clerics are supposed to be the soldiers and movers of the various churches and temples, they need to accomplish so many missions and achieve so many goals, before they can increase in position once more.


    The downside of this is that, unlike the novitiates, whom the Gods may speak to freely, and teach directly, they aren¡¯t allowed to do so much for the clerics, beyond giving them access to divine spells and magic, and occasionally answering a prayer. And it stays that way, through most of the ranks, until you become the highest ranked priest on your world for your God.


    Fortunately for me, I¡¯m already the highest ranked priest for Anubis on Earth. He doesn¡¯t have many as most people don¡¯t want to take care of the dead, or that have the necessary requirements to become a priest


    ¡°Daniel Greyman, as Necromancer Priest of Anubis, I charge you with investigating the reports of Undead in Indianapolis, going there, and clearing out the cursed souls that appear to have taken the city. Will you accept this mission?¡±


    I glare at the fire, ¡°Gladly.¡±


    *****


    Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t exactly pick everything up and go. For one, Indianapolis is a long ways away from where I¡¯m at. Two, I didn¡¯t cherish the idea of carrying a criminals head into a city with undead in it. And three, I was going to need at least a little help to deal with an entire city. Which meant there was only one place for me to go. Chicago.


    Thankfully it wasn¡¯t too far. I had picked up the Wanted poster in Grainhollow, a town just outside of Chicago that dealt largely with the farmers. It had a Chicago Adventurer¡¯s Guildhall, a tavern/inn, and a post office. That was pretty much it, as if anyone needed to buy something more, they¡¯d just head into Chicago proper and buy it.


    With the head, I was getting a reward of a hundred Iron coins. The currency system of Chicago is a bit different than you¡¯d think as there isn¡¯t much actual gold around. However, the Prince found an almost perfect solution, and that was the Iron Coin system.


    The smallest coin amount was a copper. Many of those were still pennies from the United States, before the Change. Fifty of those equaled the ¡°standard¡± dollar, which is the Iron Coin. From there, ten iron coins could be turned into a Silver Coin, which was the highest coin denomination. A person could turn in five silver coins for a quarter note, and four quarter notes for a Note. The notes were essentially the highest amounts, and no matter what it said on the note, it was only worth four quarter notes. So a hundred Iron coins was equivalent to ten silver coins, which was two quarter notes.


    That would feed me for a couple of months, if I was careful with it. Unfortunately, I don¡¯t think I would be able to enjoy that luxury. I¡¯d probably have spent all of it, and then some before I had even left for Indianapolis.


    It was time for me to find a party to work with.

 The Adventurers Guild

    I walk into the local adventurer¡¯s guild house. It is actually a house, as the only actual Guild Halls are in ¡°major population centers¡±. Places like Indianapolis used to be. They were one of the few places that completely rejected the creation of Guilds or anything, as the city council or whoever was in charge during the change kept insisting that the federal government would be back. After a certain point, most of the people left, but the ones who had remained were still holding out for the United States Government to save them.


    And now they would all be Undead or possibly worse depending on what I found.


    I walked up to the counter with the sack in hand. Dead guy¡¯s head is in it, as the last time I walked in with dismembered body parts the local Guild Leader talked to me about at least covering it up.


    ¡°Mr. Greyman,¡± says the receptionist at the counter, ¡°How can I help you today?¡±


    I pull out the Wanted poster, and slide it and the sack over to her. She sighs, ¡°Why do you always kill these guys? It could get you in real trouble some day!¡±


    I shrug. I¡¯ve never quite fit in here in Grainhollow. To many people focused on nurturing life, while I¡¯m here being the exact opposite of them. At least no one actually thinks I¡¯m evil or anything like that, as to them, I¡¯m just another adventurer.


    I keep moving around the area that Chicago has taken over, partly to continue putting up the cemetery wards, and partly to keep people from wondering about the strange adventurer who hasn¡¯t died yet, but still hasn¡¯t advanced in the Guild. Most of the guildies as I call them, they start off as maybe E rank, which means they may or may not know any magics, and they are about as effective as a goblin with a chainsaw. Which isn¡¯t at all.


    They push as hard as they can to complete five missions for the guild and advance their rank, which allows them to choose what they are doing and where they are going. A lot of them end up joining the Prince¡¯s Army. Good pay, good food, and it¡¯s simple enough for them to fit into the rank structure.


    A few end up choosing to be guards for crafters or caravans. The crafter guards normally settle down and raise a family, while the caravan guards are almost never seen again. And then there are the career adventurers. Monster Hunters, Explorers, and Guild Leaders. Every guild leader has been with the guild since near the creation of the guilds, with it normally being the party who brought the adventurers guild to a population center becoming the guild leaders for an area. The Monster Hunters are exactly that, they hunt the biggest, meanest, and scariest monsters they can find. I call those people suicidal, but to each their own. And the Explorers are the ones who remap the lands. They also are the ones who foray into the wilderness and discover what¡¯s changed.


    And then there is me. I¡¯ve completed twenty missions, but I¡¯m still at E rank, which is just unnoticeable enough that no one asks any questions. No one except the guild receptionists know that I¡¯ve completed twenty missions either. From the whispers I¡¯ve heard them whispering about me, I¡¯m something of a legend, and none of them are sure what my rank would be if I actually cared enough to get promoted.


    Well, I guess it¡¯ll be time to change all of that.


    As she counts out my stacks of coins, I push ten of them back at her. ¡°I¡¯m interested in taking the test for advancement of rank.¡±


    You¡¯d think I¡¯d dropped a bomb or something. The receptionist knows me, she knows how many missions I¡¯ve already completed. Including the mission which had Trolls on it that went from being a D rank mission to a B rank mission while I was gone from the guild house.


    Her eyes get wide, and she nods her head quickly. ¡°O-of course sir! We¡¯ll get that set up right away. What class would you like to take the advancement for?¡±


    I look at her and say, ¡°You¡¯re going to want the Guild Leader here for this. Also, the Guild Charter as approved by the Council of All Gods and ratified by the Princedom of Chicago.¡±


    As I finish speaking, her face has gradually gotten more and more white. She has never heard of a single situation where the Guild Leader of any affiliated guild hall or house has been required for a promotion test, much less needing to take out the copy of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild Charter. Most of the adventurer¡¯s couldn¡¯t even remember the full original name of the charter, much less that there was a specific version for the guild in Chicago.


    ¡°O-o-okay.¡± She stutters as she leaves her desk and heads to the upstairs area of the house where the Guild offices are at.


    Minutes later there is a shout, ¡°I don¡¯t care what he wants, he¡¯s an E rank member of the guild, I don¡¯t need to do anything for him!¡±


    I sigh. Figures, I would have to come to the one guild house that an idiot was at. I recognize the voice of course. Bill Masterson was one of the original members of an adventuring group in Chicago, the Tempests. He was the guardian of the original party, good with a blade or heavy guns, and thanks to his magic, able to take quite a few hits.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    The problem therein being his magic. Bill¡¯s an Earth Mage, and I¡¯ve yet to meet an Earth Mage who wasn¡¯t stubborn as hell, and so set in doing things a specific way that they would fight a God if they thought they could get away with it and win.


    I¡¯d met Bill before, and he didn¡¯t like me then. From the sound of his voice upstairs, he probably still didn¡¯t like me, or would like me even less once he discovered it was me. He would be a problem, for more than one reason. Bill hated necromancers, with a passion that bordered on fanaticism. So I might want to consider leaving, before this got way worse.


    Too late.


    Bill comes down, looking like a thunderstorm. The receptionist looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here, and she was clearly worried as she had in her hand a rolled up piece of parchment.


    ¡°All right,¡± Bill says, ¡°Which no brain, queer bait, dip shit insisted that the Guild Leader and Guild charter be present for his promotion test.¡±


    I sigh. ¡°That would be me Bill. Pleasure seeing you again, why are you here instead of over in Illinois? I thought the Guild Master had stationed you over there for reasons best left unmentioned.¡±


    Bill looks at me and his face goes red. ¡°YOU!¡± he shouts, clenching his fists and clearly restraining himself.


    ¡°Yes. Me.¡± I say, with a slightly bored expression,¡± How is Guild Master Stevens doing? I assume you must have seen him recently, otherwise you wouldn¡¯t be here. I purposely came to this side of the city to avoid running into you again, and yet here you are.¡±


    At this point, I figure I¡¯ll be doing good if I get out of this spot without a fight of some sort happening.


    He¡¯s still red, and his jaw is working, but he¡¯s not actually saying anything. And then, I hear the sound I¡¯d been sort of expecting to hear. The beat of wings, and the scream of a Griffin. That would be Guild Master Stevens.


    Ashley Stevens was the leader of the Tempests. She was a powerful Beast Tamer, with a Griffin and two Harpy Eagles as her companions. The Griffin¡¯s bonus ability, which kept illusions or lies from working in a Griffin¡¯s vincinity, had helped her move up quickly in the guilds ranks, and since it was big enough to ride, she was able to fly to wherever she wished to go. She stayed in the Chicago area, as everyone recognized her griffin, Reginald, here.


    But the reason I was expecting her, is that Bill shouldn¡¯t be here. He was effectively banished to the back country after a particular mission that both of us were a part of, failed due to him not doing his part and trying to get someone else in the party killed. He hated Ashley from the bottom of his black little heart, and if I could have, I¡¯d have killed him a hundred times for what he tried to pull on that mission.


    Bills face pales as he realizes that she¡¯s here. She was also on that mission, and she is the one who got the Chicago ratification of the Guild charter. Without her, he wouldn¡¯t even have a job, which I know frustrates him to no end.


    But the other reason I knew she would be here is that someone requested the charter be brought out for some reason. The gods watched the charters to see if someone was going to use them, and I knew for a fact that Ashley was a devout follower of Artemis. Which probably meant that Artemis had given her a heads up that someone had requested the charter for some reason, in Grainhollow.


    Isn¡¯t that convenient? I think so.


    As she walks in, I notice that besides wearing riding leathers that accentuate her figure a bit, instead of the enchanted plate mail armor that she wore into battle, she hasn¡¯t changed all that much. Bit younger than I am, so maybe twenty two? Athletic figure, though still clearly feminine in all of the right places.


    ¡°Why hello Guild Master Stevens! What a surprise to see you here,¡± I say, with false sincerity. She snorts, clearly seeing through me as she looks and sees that Bill is here as well.


    ¡°Bill,¡± she says, ¡°What in the nine hells are you doing this side of the territory? Did someone mess up and remove the warning I attached to your file about you only to be given postings to the west of Chicago?¡±


    He pales and says, ¡°The local guild leader asked for a favor of me. We go way back, and he wanted to make a run to Kalamazoo to see his mother. Apparently she lives on the outskirts of town and he was going to try to convince her to move down here where she¡¯d be safer.¡±


    The receptionist nods her head, which makes Ashley sigh and pinch her nose. ¡°This is why we set up the post offices, isn¡¯t it. So that people could communicate what was going on over distances, instead of going and doing whatever they felt was right!¡±


    She looks at Bill, ¡°Get back to your own posting. I¡¯m here now, and I¡¯ll stay until a suitable replacement is found. Then I¡¯ll be sending an investigative team to look into how you managed to slip this by a Goddess who¡¯s still pissed at you and the nobles who I know spy on you like crazy because they think you¡¯ll hide things from them.¡±


    Bill pales, and almost runs out the door of the Guild House. He¡¯s an Earth Mage, so traveling isn¡¯t too difficult for him. I keep myself from laughing until he¡¯s well clear of the door.


    Then I simply can¡¯t hold it in. Bill Masterson is a lot of things. A friend of mine, never. And seeing the stuck up prick run out the door because of a girl half his size is one of the most amusing things I will ever see. Largely because I know he made the smartest move he could, which will piss him off, but also because the look of fear combined with rage on his face means he might do something dumb, at which point, he becomes fair game.


    Ashley turns to look at me, then glances over at the receptionist, who is clearly in shock at how everything went down. I¡¯m still laughing, and I think this is the first time any of the receptionists have ever seen me laugh. As a matter of fact, most of the room is looking at me, and as I start to stop, Ashley goes to say something.


    I wave my hands in front of me, ¡°Please don¡¯t, not yet. You say anything, and I¡¯m liable to lose it again. The look on his face was just perfect, and I know he¡¯s probably trying to think of some way to get back at you, which I also find rather amusing.¡±


    She smiles, and motions for the receptionist to bring over the Charter and heads back to the counter. The other adventurers, a small party of E¡¯s and a couple D rankers, start to go back to what they were doing before the unfortunate interruption.


    Well, time to make some history.

 To Chicago!

    I, finally recovered from the hilarity that was Bill Masterson, step up to the counter, where both Ashley and the receptionist are waiting for me. I nod my head, and wait until Ashley clears her throat and says, ¡°Mr. Greyman, I am standing in as the Guild House Leader. We¡¯ve brought the Charter as you requested. Will you now tell us which test you wish to take for advancement in the adventurer¡¯s guild?¡±


    I smile, ¡°Guild Master, I am the duly appointed priest of Anubis, Egyptian God of Embalming, Mortuaries, and Guardian of the Dead. As such, I am requesting the test for Necromancers for myself, as well as the test for Clerics.¡±


    As I say these words, the entire room is silent once more. Even Ashley is quiet, and looking at me like I just kicked her dog. Which, to be fair, is entirely not true, and she knows it. But the immediate repercussions will be interesting.


    As I think this, the adventurers across the room from me kick over their tables, huddle behind them, and are holding various weapons like they are about to use them. That is until Ashley shouts, ¡°Stand DOWN!!!¡±


    It¡¯s loud enough, and coming from a person of high enough strength, that everyone at the tables, with no exceptions, is putting their weapons down and backing up slowly. As they do that, Ashley looks at me, and I smile.


    ¡°You understand that we have to go to Chicago to take that test?¡± she says.


    ¡°I¡¯m aware. I¡¯m also aware that any Necromancer who adheres to his chosen deity¡¯s creed, and wishes to join the adventurer¡¯s guild is to be allowed. And that the Guild Leaders in an area are required to move as quickly as possibly to confirm that the Necromancer is in fact loyal to his or her deity. Which is why I asked for the Charter, the passage I¡¯m referring to is in Section B, chapter thirteen, paragraph twelve.¡±


    Even she pauses at that one. Then she sighs, ¡°Anubis made sure that exact paragraph was added in for you, didn¡¯t he?¡± I just smile. Anubis actually added it in because it¡¯s never a good idea to limit your resources, and Necromancy can be a valuable asset. Not to mention that certain spells can be considered necromantic even though they aren¡¯t actually, they just accomplish the same effect as necromantic spells.


    While they look it up, I look around for a moment, and when I hear Ashley go from being quiet to cussing, loudly, frequently, and speculating on my family heritage, I start paying attention again.


    ¡°You must have just read the next paragraph. So yes, you do in fact have to escort me to Chicago in the fastest manner possible. Which would be your Griffin.¡±


    More cussing. I¡¯m just droning out what she¡¯s saying, as it¡¯s fairly unimaginative. I mean, if she called me a scrotum sucking, dumpster diving, stain on the backside of a camel¡¯s ass, I¡¯d be listening. However, she¡¯s not, so I¡¯m not. She¡¯s mostly just stringing bitch, fuck, ass, and cunt together in different word combinations. Yeah, boring.


    ¡°Yeah, I know,¡± I say,¡± I¡¯m a right bastard and all that. But the sooner we get to Chicago the sooner you can pretend none of this happened or whatever.¡±


    She glares at me for a moment, before huffing out a, ¡°Fine.¡±


    Unexpectedly, the receptionist steps forward at that moment. ¡°Umm, ma¡¯am? Can I meet up with you in Chicago? I think I would like to join his party.¡±


    Ashley stares at her for moment, before glancing at me. I don¡¯t think that helped her any, because I¡¯m just as bewildered. I was expecting to have to pay quite a bit to even get anyone to consider joining my party.


    ¡°Miss McGuire, I only have one question as I know you are a D rank Ranger. Why?¡± Ashley says, slightly glaring at the poor girl. Now that I know she¡¯s a ranger I¡¯m actually sort of excited to have her along. Rangers are survival specialists in the extreme. From what I understand, the Ranger¡¯s Test to become a D rank is they are put into the middle of the woods by a team of rangers, left with nothing but the clothes they are wearing. They have two weeks from that point to hunt at least a D rank monster and bring it back to the Guild Hall.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am,¡± says Ms. McGuire,¡± The biggest reason is that he¡¯s never going to fit with a traditional party. He¡¯s both a spellcaster and a cleric, which will cause problems in any party because he can fulfill two roles. Unfortunately for me, I have the same problem. I can deal damage at ranged, which normally means I¡¯m a damage dealer, however I am also considered a support person, because of my survival skills. I know more about traps, various natural cures, and can track anything from wolves to Trolls with ease. All of those things mean I¡¯ve been forced to be a receptionist. So what better party member for me, than someone who has the same problem?¡±Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Ashley looks at the girl and throws her hands up in the air, storming out of the Guild House. I find it largely amusing, as I hold my hand out to the young woman, and say, ¡°My name is Daniel Greyman, what¡¯s yours?¡±


    She looks at me, with slight surprise. ¡°You¡¯re not upset that I basically just joined your team without asking you?¡±


    ¡°Of course not! I might be able to manage in the wilds, but that doesn¡¯t mean I have any actual idea what I¡¯m doing. You would be most welcome. Also, it works because I don¡¯t have that much money right now, and I was planning on using most of it to try and get party members, which might not even work. So having you along already is great!¡±


    She blushes a bit and then laughs, ¡°Well at least you aren¡¯t like the last party that tried to get me to join them. They insisted they were doing me a favor by letting me join them and then made me do all the work. Only did one job with them.¡± She smiles at me, ¡°My name is Alyssa McGuire.¡±


    *****


    Roughly three hours later, we were in Chicago. The paragraphs I was referencing from the Guild Charter stated, essentially, that the guild was required to use the fastest means at hand to get a potential necromancer of any rank, and their party or possible party members, to the closest main guild hall to be tested. Which is why Ashley was so mad, especially after Alyssa said she wanted to be part of my party. Today is just not Ashley¡¯s day.


    The flight was interesting. Both Alyssa and I were riding in the transport sling that was being carried by Reginald. The sling was able to hold up to three people comfortably, four or five if absolutely needed. It was a bit cold, as neither of us thought of the fact that the air higher up was colder as well. But we managed.


    Along the way, me and Alyssa got to know a bit more about each other, and our ¡°classes¡±. The Adventurer¡¯s Guild instituted the class system to allow for the easy organization of individuals during combat. Every guild member that advanced to D rank was given a badge that had their class¡¯ symbol on it. This helped differentiate who was who, and who could do what.


    The basic classes that most adventurers went for were guardian, soldier, and mage. Guardians were bigger people normally, who had heavy armors and weapons, but were mostly just tanks and able to deflect or defend against a lot of damage. They were the normal key figures of a party, as they were the ones who kept everyone else from being damaged. There were several split off types of Guardians, but most of those went by different names.


    Soldiers were different from Guardians in that a soldiers main job was dealing damage. They were able to focus into specific soldier roles, such as gunner, or infantry, and each different role had a different badge. However the key role of a soldier in a party was to deal damage and kill the enemy.


    Lastly, there was the Mage. The Mage class is given to anyone who can use magic, with mage specific roles, just like the Soldier. There are exceptions to that rule, as the Mage only deals with normal magic, energy that can be found pretty much anywhere, and is easily converted to mana or other elemental energy.


    Now, there are set specialties for each general class. Guardians have Shield Masters, Knights, Paladins, Samurai, Beast Tamers, and Cavaliers. Soldiers have Gunners, Infantry, Weapons Masters, Archers, Berserkers, and Martial Artists. The Mages are split by which area of magic they use, so the different mage classes are Geomancer, Pyromancer, Hydromancer, and Aeromancer.


    Now there are a few other classes that work the same way, those being Priest, Bard, and Rogue. Priest is split up into Cleric, Friar, and Preacher. Bards are split into Singer, Musician, and Jester. Rogues are probably the least liked of the classes next to Necromancer, with the specialties being Thief, Assassin, Skirmisher, and Swashbuckler.


    The fun part is, almost every class actually has ¡°specialties¡± that will tie it in with another class, though the titles for those are only available after reaching C rank. So a Rogue who took the thief specialization, if they chose to become a geomancer as well, they¡¯d be called a Tomb Raider. Me, as a Necromancer and a Cleric, I would be considered an Entomber under normal circumstances, but my role as a Priest of Anubis sort of supersedes that, so I would just keep my title of Necromancer Priest of Anubis.


    He¡¯s cool like that.


    Anyway, Rangers are actually another class that has some choices with it, those being Trapper, Hunter, and Survivalist. It¡¯s not normally a popular option for people, mostly because it takes a lot of work to be good at.


    Also, the Gods were the ones who passed on the information about the different classes. However, they didn¡¯t tell us about all of them. Just the ones that we¡¯ve actually earned by having one person become that class and passing the test. Which is another reason why me being a necromancer is a bit of a big deal. Once I pass the test, everyone will be able to see the specialties that go with being a Necromancer.


    Though I know, because Anubis told me so I could decide what I wanted early. Basically, they focus on the different magic¡¯s that necromancers practice. Blood magic designates you as a Blood Mage. Same with Bone Magic, though it¡¯s Bone Mage in that case. Soul Magic is known as a Medium. And Death Magic is called a Reanimator. Then there are the combination titles, one of which I am going for. Bone and Blood can combine into the ironically named, Mortician. At least I feel it¡¯s ironically named, due to my previous profession.


    Morticians are best at dealing with the physical side of the dead, and are one of the few Necromancer options that don¡¯t actually use death magic to reanimate corpses very often. As a matter of fact, most Morticians don¡¯t use reanimated bodies, as they serve a role more similar to a healer or a damage dealer if they¡¯re in a party. Not to mention they can use both bone and blood magic to enchant gear.


    And that¡¯s what I¡¯m going for first. Morticians are severely underestimated in my opinion, as most people think the scariest thing about necromancers are raising the dead. However, Morticians are fully capable of healing or poisoning people, as well as using Bone magic to various effect.


    Having landed in Chicago finally, it''s time to take my test!

 Flashback: Quest gone wrong

    This is all kinds of fucked up. I¡¯m currently sitting up to my knees in a swamp, and it¡¯s just cold enough that frost has started to set in. I¡¯m looking at my target, but there¡¯s no way in hell that I¡¯m going to try and take him right now.


    The target, a Henry Deeter, is standing slightly in front of four other men, and about twenty other people of varying age and size. The twenty he¡¯s ¡®collected¡¯ over the last couple of weeks that I¡¯ve been hunting him down. They¡¯re all wearing chains and metal collars around their necks.


    Slaves in other words. I¡¯d bet that either the chains or the collars have some enchantment on them that keeps all of them in line. Fucking disgusting. Especially considering who this asshole is selling them to.


    Seven trolls are standing on the other side of the small piece of land he¡¯s standing on. Armed with actual swords and clubs, they don¡¯t exactly fit in with the ¡°local¡± trolls. For one, most of the trolls in this area are too dumb to use weapons, and actually prefer to use their hands to kill. Another point, is that I¡¯m pretty sure the weapons are at least lightly enchanted, which suggest one of two things to me. These ugly bastards are either from near St. Louis, or somewhere down south like Kentucky.


    Naturally, all of these ugly fuckers are on one of the few naturally raised areas of this thrice blasted swamp, and thus, all of them are relatively dry, and not freezing their asses off, like I am. I really wish I could ask Anubis for some good advice, but I know better. The gods aren¡¯t allowed to directly interfere with mortal affairs, like this, as it would allow demons, devils, and everything else that goes bump in the night to do the same.


    Suddenly I hear a strange scream. Not a human scream, it sounds more like a birds, but somethings a little off. Ducking down further into the swamp, I look up and around. And there they are.


    A fully equipped adventuring party. Five people, four being carried in a sling underneath a fucking Griffin! The fifth person is riding the bloody thing! As they swoop down and the griffin sets the sling down so that they can get started on their mission, which is quite clearly the Trolls, I realise that this is my chance.


    I start by propelling the two harpoons I had prepared directly at the guards closest to the slaves. Both of my harpoons are made from deer bones, and they shatter after impaling themselves inside the two guards. Both of them drop like sacks of bricks, and I move forward.


    The adventurer¡¯s have someone with a machine gun, as I hear them open fire on what I assume is the trolls. I glance over and sure enough, he¡¯s firing at the trolls, and about one in every five round is tracer fire. That¡¯ll be good as trolls are afraid of both fire and acid, both of which keeps their natural regeneration from working.


    The griffin flies upwards a bit before slamming back down on another troll. Meanwhile I see two slightly purple streaks come down and attack the next two guards, leaving me Deeter. I draw a pair of bone knives, both made from Giant Boar Tusks.


    Unfortunately, Deeter sees me and brings his whip around to try and lash me. I know he¡¯s pretty good with it, as I¡¯ve found several people at the locations he¡¯s ¡°visited¡± during the past couple of weeks who were killed by a whip. However, I¡¯ve got his number this time.


    He doesn¡¯t properly clean his weapon. Ever.


    The dried blood on his whip answers the blood magic call I¡¯m wearing. Acid Blood is a very interesting spell. It is manually activated, but once activated it can turn any free blood within five feet into acid. I actually prepared five knuckle bones with the spell on them for this occasion, as each one lasts about five minutes, and only affects blood near the knuckle. I was thinking to throw it at the trolls if I needed to, hoping for cuts and other free flowing blood.


    But this works nicely, as the whip falls apart quickly due to the enchantment. Deeter throws the whip away and goes for his dagger, but I¡¯m already on him. A quick stab at his neck, which he ducks to avoid, and then it¡¯s over, as I drag my other knife across his throat. Now that he¡¯s dead, I can look at what¡¯s happening, as gunfire is still going, and I can hear the shouts of both man and troll.


    What I see immediately horrifies me. The man with the machine gun has turned it on the slaves, while his party holds off five trolls without his help. The trolls are somewhat emboldened by the fact that the tracer rounds aren¡¯t coming at them, and that one of them managed to get the parties mage at some point.


    My blood runs both hot and cold as I charge at the gunner. Luckily my fight with Deeter took me behind him, so the lunatic doesn¡¯t see me before I tackle him from behind. We both roll onto the ground, and the machine gun goes silent as it flies into the swamp. I quickly get back up and turn as I hear another scream, this time human.


    Without the gunfire, and with the mage down, the trolls came back, though there are now only five. The griffin is fighting two, protecting a priest as he quickly uses magic to heal the mage. The mage has a bad cut across her chest, which ripped open the robes she was wearing, and she looks extremely pale as she lays on the ground, clearly struggling to breathe. Two others, a man and a woman, are holding off the other three trolls.


    The man is dressed in strange armor, that reminds me of samurai armor, and he¡¯s armed with a strange curved blade spear. The woman has more normal looking plate armor on, and is doing her best to hold off the troll she¡¯s fighting with her sword and shield.


    Quickly glancing down, I see that the gunner is out cold. I make a quick prayer to Anubis that he stays that way for a while, and run to help the griffin. The unique thing about griffins is that lies can not exist around them. I know that sounds weird, but if anyone tries to tell a lie near a griffin, they find themselves unable to. Makes me really glad that Anubis taught me about dealing with elves about a month ago. Elves also don¡¯t lie, they just only tell as much of the truth as they think you deserve.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    So I yell at the griffin, ¡°This will turn blood to acid!¡± before throwing another knuckle bone at one of the trolls. The griffin has just enough time to slash open that trolls throat before the knuckle activates, causing all of the now free flowing blood from the trolls throat to turn into acid and eat away at the troll.


    The troll screams in anguish, and as I look over, the other trolls are stepping back, looking at me. Then the three that were fighting the duo, as well as the last one fighting the griffin, turn and run into the swamp. One of them yells something in Troll at me, before all four of them disappear.


    And, just like that, the fight is over. Obviously we stay on guard, but we¡¯re in no condition to try and chase them. And they¡¯re not in a good spot to try and take us. Trolls have a notoriously hard time trying to sneak up on anyone, so all of us feel somewhat confident of what¡¯s going on now.


    ¡°Thank you stranger,¡± says that man in the strange looking armor, as the woman goes to the griffin. She¡¯s the one that was riding it before. I nod at the man and say, ¡°No problem. But before we get to everything else, you might want to restrain the lunatic over there. He was firing on unarmed civilians.¡±


    At this, both the man and the woman turn to look at me, before glancing at the, thankfully, still passed out gunman.


    ¡°Is that so,¡± says the woman, in a voice that nears icy cold. I suspect that there might be something more going on here, but I¡¯m not sure what.


    ¡°Do you have any proof?¡± says the man, sounding cautiously aloof.


    I look over, and realize that every single one of the slaves is now dead. A few look like the collars around their neck just tightened until they couldn¡¯t breathe, and I curse.


    ¡°Not anymore,¡± I say, ¡°A few of those out there were alive a few minutes ago, however I¡¯m guessing one of the trolls had the controller for the enchantment on the collar. They¡¯ve all been killed.¡±


    He sighs, then looks at the woman. ¡°Once again, we don¡¯t have enough evidence. He could have opened on them for a dozen reasons, and we¡¯ll know which one when he recovers. But without one of them alive to tell us if his reason is true, we¡¯re stuck with another situation of conflicting reports, and Bill has enough backing with the Lords that we¡¯d never get it through the courts.¡±


    The woman grunts, ¡°Too bad they passed the law that Griffins aren¡¯t allowed into the court house. That¡¯d solve this problem pretty quickly.¡±


    He sighs, ¡°I think we¡¯re just going to have to kick him from the Tempests and you will have to assign him somewhere he can¡¯t do too much harm.¡±


    She sighs then looks at me. The priest had overheard what was being talked about, and had already tied the man up before he could awake.


    ¡°So, who are you and where are you from?¡± she asks me.


    ¡°My name is Daniel Greyman, I¡¯m from what used to be Northern Indiana,¡± I immediately shift into what I¡¯m starting to think of as Elf mode.


    She nods as she looks at me, with slight suspicion, ¡°What were you doing out here, Mr. Greyman?¡±


    I snort, before pointing at the corpse of Deeter, ¡°That was my target. Slaver Henry Deeter. Wanted Dead or Alive. Took the request about two and a half weeks ago, when it was still ranked E rank. High E to be sure, but still.¡±


    She nods, ¡°It was only moved up to C rank about a week ago, when we got word that he might be working with a group of trolls. You¡¯re lucky we came along when we did.¡±


    I shrug, ¡°I¡¯ve been hunting this guy for over two weeks now, and he hadn¡¯t even heard I was on his tail. I¡¯m good at being out of the way.¡±


    ¡°All right,¡± she says, ¡°Last question for you, what¡¯s your class. I¡¯ve never heard of a class that lets you turn blood to acid.¡±


    I sigh. ¡°That was these knuckle bones I¡¯ve got.¡± True, if not completely. ¡°Can I ask a question? I¡¯m still an E ranker, and I joined the guild out in the middle of nowhere basically. Who are you people?¡±


    Of course, I know who they are, but this does it¡¯s purpose of distracting them from asking me what class I am.


    ¡°We¡¯re the Tempests,¡± she says, but before she can continue, the man wakes up.


    ¡°What the hell is going on!¡± he shouts, glaring at everyone around him.


    ¡°Bill,¡± the woman says, ¡°You¡¯re no longer part of the Tempests. You are now officially reassigned to Oxhollow, in the western territories. Your actions today, while I am unable to take you to court for them, have lowered the trust we have for you. We don¡¯t want you in the group anymore.¡±


    At all of this, Bill¡¯s face is conspicuously paled. ¡°You can¡¯t do this,¡± he says, but before he can continue the man starts yelling at him.


    ¡°This is the fourth time we¡¯ve gone into a fight, and someone has gotten seriously injured. Melanie almost died Bill! A troll managed to cut her open and if it wasn¡¯t for Paul, she¡¯d be dead! As it is, she is in no condition to continue, and Ashley and Reginald are going to have to medevac her before it gets to dark. Which means WE, meaning you, me, Paul, and our new friend here, get to stay in this fucking swamp overnight! And you say, we can¡¯t do this? Good Riddance!¡±


    I¡¯m actually rather impressed. I mean, it¡¯s kind of apparent that this guy has a crush on that Melanie girl, but he¡¯s some kind of machine, cause he¡¯s been taking care of what needs to be taken care of, before looking to how she¡¯s doing.


    Either way, I¡¯ve got a long night ahead of me, especially since these guys probably won¡¯t want to travel in the dark. They¡¯ll want to set up a camp and set a watch to keep the monsters and such away. And of course, I¡¯ll have to stay with them, because I¡¯m just an E rank adventurer, I don¡¯t even have my regular title yet.


    Granted, I¡¯d imagine there¡¯d be other words to be said if they knew I was a Necromancer.


    Before they can say anything else, I walk over to the corpse of Deeter, and saw his head off with my knife. Everyone just kind of watches me as I do this, but I don¡¯t really pay attention. This far away from the Griffin I can safely lie, and I need the head to collect on the bounty.


    As they say, a man¡¯s got to eat. Thankfully, my behavior doesn¡¯t really throw any of them off. As a matter of fact, the guy with the strange armor comes over and hands me a bag.


    ¡°This is a gift from us. It used to be Bill¡¯s, but he borrowed it from the group, and now that he¡¯s no longer part of us, he doesn¡¯t get to keep it. He already took his stuff out of it, he¡¯s got more of them. He mostly kept ammo in this one.¡±


    The bag he hands me is a dark red, not quite the color of blood. As I open it, I realize what this is. It¡¯s a bag of holding. Bags of holding were initially created by some former dungeons and dragons nerd in the Saints Ring. He took the concept and figured out the spell work to make the actual bag. Now the guy is living the good life, as everyone wants one of these.


    Each bag of holding is ranked from Least up to Master. A Least Bag of Holding is basically a backpack the size of a coin purse. It¡¯s mostly just good for keeping money in. The higher you go, the more you can carry, and the less it will weigh. For example, a Bag of Holding can hold up to three hundred pounds of stuff, or ninety cubic meters, and will always only weigh two pounds.


    ¡°This,¡± I say, ¡°is awesome. But, before we go further, I never caught your name.¡±


    He chuckles, ¡°My name¡¯s Jamie. Jamie Buchanan.¡±


    I nod, then say, ¡°Well, Jamie Buchanan, this is a kick ass gift, and I think,¡± glancing up at the sky, ¡°If we get moving we can be outside of the Swamp before dark. Won¡¯t make a town until tomorrow, but it¡¯s better than being in the middle of all this,¡± waving my hand to encompass our surroundings, ¡°Plus, I know the way.¡±

 The Necromancers Trial

    The tower in Chicago that holds the Adventurer¡¯s Guild is Tribune Tower. One of the few remaining buildings from before the change really, as many of the taller towers fell apart from various monster attacks. Tribune Tower managed to hold up reasonably well, and serves as the hub of the adventurer¡¯s guild. The Prince¡¯s ¡°palace¡± is just next door, and the area where the tower was held up incredibly well after the change.


    The upper floors were turned into a rookery for the various flying monsters that the beast tamers had managed to claim, with some of them being available for mail and such, while others, like Reginald, were big enough to be ridden. Most of the creatures here are things like hawks and eagles, though I do notice one phoenix that¡¯s off on its own, as well as a Couatl, or Feathered Snake.


    Ashley escorts us downwards. The majority of the guilds everyday business happens in the lowest parts of the tower, either underground or on the main floor. The main floor has become the Hub, where all of the junior most adventurers go to accept quests and such, however it is also the place where one can find out about the requirements for advancement to the next rank, as well as, for some of the classes, apply to take your test.


    Granted, no one has taken the test to advance as a Necromancer since the change happened, so this will be interesting.


    As we approach the counter, and I am reminded to be extremely grateful to mages with the ability to create teleportation networks, the room gets quiet. I think people just realized that the guild master is escorting two people to the counter for some reason. Anytime something like that happens I imagine people are trying to figure out what¡¯s going on, but Anubis and I kept my actual class a well-kept secret for a long time. So no one knows what¡¯s going on.


    The crowd parts before us, as we get near the receptionist¡¯s desk. One of them looks over, sees the Guild Master being followed by two people, and gets a slightly panicked look on her face.


    ¡°Guild Member Felicia,¡± Ashley says, just loud enough that her voice rings in the open space, ¡°I need you to go and get the keys for the Trial Room. Make sure to bring back the key for the Trial of the Necromancer.¡± She looks at the girl sternly, as a silent ripple goes out through the crowd.


    As the girl runs to get the keys, which I¡¯m guessing aren¡¯t kept in the Hub Hall, a man steps forward.


    ¡°Guild Master,¡± he says, ¡°Does this mean someone is taking the Trial of advancement for Necromancer?¡± It¡¯s common knowledge that the Gods made sure there was a space set aside for each trial that they saw as relevant. Some of the Trial spaces share a room, because they hold the trial in the wild, and just use the trial space for the ceremony acknowledging an advancement. However, this wasn¡¯t true for the Necromancer, which everyone saw as a class that no one would take, or the rooms would never be used.


    That¡¯s how badly necromancers aren¡¯t appreciated here.


    She sighs, giving me a glare, before looking at the guild member and saying, ¡°Yes, there is someone who wishes to advance to the D grade as a necromancer. They have exceeded all the requirements by quite a margin, and have also received the permission of their deity to take this test.¡±


    The man thinks this over for a moment, ¡°All right, but why weren¡¯t they executed before this?¡±


    There is a rumble from the hall, and Ashley frowns.


    ¡°Necromancers, as I was reminded a short while ago, are a protected profession under the Adventurer¡¯s Guild Charter. Any area where necromancers are being executed as you say, will no longer receive the benefits of a guild hall, and any guild member seen taking part in such an execution other than to stop it will be kicked out of the guild immediately.¡±


    ¡°Moreover, if any necromancer seeks acknowledgement by the guild, they¡¯re to be escorted to the nearest central Guild Hall to take the Trial of the Necromancer, and they are required to take harder trials than any other member as they get stronger.¡±


    A voice sounds out in the hall, ¡°Necromancers are supposed to walk the path between the world of the dead, and the world of the living. They serve as the Gods first tool in fighting against the corruption of unlife, but the path is long and treacherous. Those necromancers who lose their way, burn their souls until it is completely black, and they become liches, serving the powers of unlife alone, instead of administrating the souls of the dead into the next life as they should.¡±


    The voice is feminine, but with a hard edge in it. I glance over, and see the most beautiful woman I¡¯ve ever seen, though she has a remarkable amount of similarities to Anubis. For one, she must be at least nine and a half feet tall. Strikingly beautiful, she has a bow slung across her back, and a quiver attached slightly tilted on her belt. Her clothes are all leather, though from what animals they could have come from I have no idea, as they are the most beautiful pelts I¡¯ve ever seen. As I glance over, she smiles slightly.


    ¡°Anubis has made a good choice with this one. He has learned the proper rituals, and has already warded the entire eastern side of the Chicago territory with charms that will keep the dead from ever rising there, as long as the charms are untouched. Also he has mastered the use of two of the four Necromantic Arts, Blood and Bone magic. Enough so that he was able to fight off trolls, and assist in saving the Tempests almost three years ago.¡±


    Hearing that I have a specific endorsement by one god, and apparently the support of another Goddess, silences the grumbling of the crowd. Artemis, for that¡¯s the only person this could be, smiles at me and says, ¡°Good hunting on your mission young necromancer. You¡¯ll need it.¡± And then she disappears in a flash of light.


    I¡¯m not exactly sure what happened there. Neither is anyone else, but it¡¯s working in my favor. After all, when a Goddess wishes you luck on a mission, no one is going to do anything, for fear that either the mission, if failed, will end the world or something. Or they¡¯ll be smited for hindering said mission.


    So it¡¯s almost like a get out of jail free card, except this time it¡¯s everyone¡¯s prejudice that I¡¯m getting away from, at least for the moment.


    Thankfully, while everyone is still recovering from the divine visitation, the woman, Felicia, returns with a set of keys. And on this key is one that stands out, at least to me. Made from solid gold, it¡¯s a literal skeleton key, with the key made to resemble a dancing skeleton. Kind of weird.


    Ashley hurries us out, glancing at me and asking, ¡°Did you arrange that?¡±


    I sigh, ¡°I didn¡¯t, but I wouldn¡¯t put it past Anubis. He¡¯s kind of sneaky like that.¡±


    She nods and also sighs. ¡°Yesterday, life was so simple!¡± she groans.


    Me and Alyssa just look at her and smile, somewhat apologetically.


    *****


    We are taken to another hall, this one underground. There are a bunch of doors in this hall, each one beautifully engraved with a motif of some kind. On the Guardian¡¯s door is a motif of Bears and trees, while on the Soldiers door is one of swords and hawks.


    We pass these doors, going towards the back of the Hall. There, to the left hand side of the hall, is a door made from some black metal. The motif on the door is skulls and wailing souls. Most people wouldn¡¯t know that, but as a Necromancer, I¡¯ve seen them, and this is a perfect rendition of the angry souls of the dead.


    Felicia takes out the skeleton key, and Ashley nods to her, then looks at me.


    ¡°You will have three hours to complete your trial. There were some other warnings with the Necromancer¡¯s Trial that the Charter warned me of to tell you now. If you die in the trial, the door will flash, and your body will be returned to outside the door. If you fail the trial, you must seek permission from your deity to attempt this again. And the last warning is clearly from the Gods. It is, be true to yourself. Attempting to clear the trial by giving what you think are the correct answers, will cause you to fail instead. Solve the problems the way you know you should, not the way you think you should.¡±


    I smile. Cryptic as always, that last part could have come straight from Anubis¡¯ mouth. But I do understand, and I realize why Anubis was confident I could pass this trial.


    Nodding my head, Felicia inserts the key, opens the door, and I step forward into darkness.


    *****


    The darkness of this room is like ink, so thick I feel I could actually drink it in. I don¡¯t and instead close my eyes, walking forward until my magic is telling me something is different.


    I open them and I¡¯m astonished.


    The area I¡¯m in now is the sitting room at my old funeral home. I look down and I¡¯m wearing the shirt and tie I would normally wear for work. I look around, and see that there is a wake in progress. The majority of the people are smiling and recounting stories about the deceased. Only this time, one thing is different.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    I can see the soul of the deceased. She hasn¡¯t moved on yet, and is instead hovering around a young boy in the back of the room. I look around, and see a youngish man, he¡¯s probably around my age, who¡¯s crying as friends and relatives try to console him, and I know he¡¯s the father.


    I don¡¯t remember this case exactly, but the largest number of deaths that we answered were fatal car accidents. So it isn¡¯t hard to figure out generally what happened.


    I walk over to the boy, and whisper under my breath the one soul magic spell that Anubis taught me. Speak with the Dead, a spell that allows me to converse with the souls of those that have died recently, or if their soul is still hanging around.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± I intone, in a low voice, but directed by magic. The soul of the woman looks to me.


    ¡°Please, you have to help me. I need to be here for my son. I need to protect him!¡± she says.


    I shake my head. ¡°No. Your time is up, and you should be moving on. I will try to comfort him, but you can¡¯t stay with him any longer.¡±


    She starts to get mad, and I notice that a few of the nearby tables start shaking slightly. She¡¯s obviously got some serious power here. ¡°You can¡¯t tell me what I can do! My son needs me, and I will stay here to protect him!¡±


    I start preparing a ritual. The ritual is rather simple in fact, even if carrying it out sucks. It¡¯s a blood magic ritual, basically changing a drop of blood into a drop of holy water that will cleanse an area of any spirits trying to act.


    At this point, instead of talking with the mother, I go to the boy. I kneel down before him, and say, ¡°My name¡¯s Daniel, what¡¯s yours?¡±


    The boy looks at me and says, ¡°Billy.¡±


    ¡°Well, Billy,¡± I say, ¡°Do you miss your mom?¡± He nods his head.


    ¡°Has everyone told you that she¡¯s going on to a better place?¡± He nods again.


    ¡°But has anyone told you why she needs to move on to that better place?¡± At this point he looks at me and shakes his head, no.


    ¡°Well Billy,¡± I say, ¡°Everyone has to die someday. That means they can¡¯t stay here with those that they love. If they try, bad things start to happen, as the person who died can¡¯t give up on those that they love. They might try to stay with them.¡±


    ¡°But when they do, they only end up hurting the ones they love.¡± At this point, I know the woman¡¯s soul is also listening, ¡°It starts off as them trying to protect you, but they don¡¯t have any power to reach into our world anymore. So they try to take that power. And the only place that they can take that power from, is the same people that they love.¡±


    ¡°After a while, this causes the love they had for their loved ones to get twisted. Especially as you try to go and live your life. The person that loved you sees you living your life as forgetting them. But you aren¡¯t, not really. You¡¯re just living your life.¡± The boy is crying slightly now, but he looks at me and smiles.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± he says. I turn to look at the mother¡¯s soul, and she smiles and says, ¡°Thank you, Necromancer,¡± before fading away.


    Then the world goes black again.


    *****


    The next vision I see is something I¡¯m sure will horrify me to my death, and possibly beyond.


    I¡¯m on a section of asphalt, but that¡¯s the only reassuring thing about this new landscape. The sky is a dark red, and as I look around, I can see the cracks in the ground glowing with green light. Souls are coming in and out of those cracks, and I can hear the wailing, even though they are almost two miles away from me.


    I turn and see a city, burning with sickly green flames. I remember Anubis telling me about those flames. Soul Fire, one of the strongest spells of fallen Necromancers. I glance just down the road and see the corpses of a pack of dogs, all of them missing pieces. And almost all of their souls are missing.


    Only two remain, a pair of Dobermans that look enough alike I¡¯d guess they were a sibling pair. I approach cautiously, as the souls of animals can be more dangerous than the souls of humans, just like the living in that regard. I¡¯m suddenly thankful that I have the Holy Blood ritual prepared.


    But both of the hounds look at me with eyes that are pleading for something. It takes me a minute to think of an answer, and when I do, I nearly smack my forehead.


    ¡°Anubis, Guardian of the Dead, please hear me. I ask that you translate the wishes of these two beasts to me, so that I may pass their souls on to you.¡±


    I instantly hear a chuckle. ¡°Smart move, kid.¡± says my patron, ¡°They want revenge on the ghouls that did this to their pack. Both volunteer to help you with this. You officially have permission from the Gods of Death to raise these two as your familiars.¡±


    I blink, before smiling and saying aloud, ¡°Okay,¡± I say to both the dogs and Anubis.


    Looking at the dogs I say, ¡°Lead me to your bodies, I will reattach you to them.¡± Both hounds lead me to a pile of corpses, and I see the parts of different ghouls that they managed to rip off of the corpses.


    Using Bone magic to reanimate the corpses enough to move them off the Doberman¡¯s bodies, I quickly notice that neither dog has a head. Looking around for a moment leads me to finding both skulls of the dogs, picked mostly clean of brain and flesh. Using bone magic once more, I finish cleaning off the heads, and think about how I¡¯m going to do this.


    First, I take the hound¡¯s bodies, and conduct the necessary ritual to transfer the vital organs into Canopic Jars. Reinserting those jars into the corpses, once I¡¯ve cleaned out the other vital organs, will provide the power source in Death Energy for them. I leave the muscle and fur of both hounds alone, besides using the blood magic ritual, ¡°Grateful Repose¡±, which allows both to remain without rotting. I¡¯ll have to figure out a more permanent solution later for them.


    Then, using bone magic, I reattach the skulls to their bodies, and carefully remove my two most precious materials, magic cores.


    Magic cores are extremely rare currently, as they are only found in monsters that have some form of aptitude for magic. Each one is fairly specific, but they are an amazing resource for any spell caster, as they can be used in a number of fairly complex spells and rituals for varying effect. I plan to use these, placing them in the skulls, as anchors for the souls of the hounds.


    Then I proceed to draw out the magic circles for the rituals. Each ritual will be the same, and it essentially is a combined reanimation with the soul contract of a familiar. The name of the ritual is the Ritual of Soul Sharing, and it means that quite literally. I share part of my soul with both of them, allowing us to find each other if separated, and if I die, both of them will pass on as well. If they die, they will come to me, returning my piece of soul, and I will need to release them, or prepare another body for them if they don¡¯t want to move on.


    The most important part of this, is that it will allow the three of us to communicate with each other without my having to ask Anubis for a favor when I want to know what they want.


    As I finish the circles, both hounds¡¯ souls go over and rest above their respective bodies. I sit down between the two circles and start to intone the words of the ritual.


    ¡°By the powers that reach beyond life, I call you back to this mortal realm. I ask that you come of your own will, as I will not force this on you. I call you back to travel with me, to be my companions.¡± At this point, the ritual has actually begun, and a dense whirlpool of blue energy appears above each skull.


    ¡°I¡¯ve prepared the hosts. They have the energy to carry you once more, in unlife as in life. They have an anchor, to hold your souls here. They have the full form you once held, damaged now as it was at death.¡± At this, both hounds are pulled into the whirlpool, and sucked toward the head.


    ¡°I willingly share my soul with you both. I do so, so that you will be complete once more. I do so, so that you may understand me, and I ask that you share your soul with me so I may understand you. I thank you for this sharing of souls.¡± At this point, I nearly scream as my soul has two pieces cut off. The pain is intense, and I vaguely hear both of the hounds howling as well. And then, it¡¯s done. The skulls of the hounds light up with blue flame which seems to come from their eyes, but it also lends itself into being their ears.


    The first weird part is that I can feel both of them. I know that the modifications I made to their bodies seem weird to them, and then they both feel me as well.


    It surprises all of us, but we quickly come around. This hellish landscape is seriously creeping me out, and I nod to the both of them, ¡°Let¡¯s go kill some ghouls.¡±


    *****


    Thankfully, they didn¡¯t move to far away. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that there is a lot of Death Energy around, I suspect my ritual would have attracted their attention. However, they didn¡¯t notice, and they¡¯re only a small group, about ten of them. The ghoul leading them is clearly close to becoming a Wight, which would be a serious problem, however I feel confident about us taking them, especially since they¡¯re just sitting around a pile of debris.


    I start of by pulling out a handful of bones. Knuckle bones and teeth specifically. The teeth have an enchantment on them to amplify their kinetic force. Basically makes them move very quickly. And the knuckle bones I, as quickly as possible, draw the correct runes on them for a blood magic spell.


    Blood Boil is probably one of my most disgusting spells in my opinion, as the spell causes someone¡¯s blood to literally start boiling. It only lasts a couple of minutes, but the effects can be huge, especially if used as part of a surprise attack. I pull out my back up weapon from the bag of holding I hide it in, and load it with teeth first. The teeth are already ¡°programmed¡± so that when they are launched from the barrel, they¡¯ll activate and propel themselves to an extreme speed.


    The three of us crawl up as close as we can to the group of ghouls, and when we are about twenty feet away, I stand up and unload a single round into the skull of one of the ghouls.


    This is the hounds signal, as they rush up and tear the throats of a pair of ghouls. Within moments it¡¯s down to three against seven.


    I load the next round in as the hounds keep the ghoul off of me. I prepare a blood magic spell as I finish loading, this time with a knuckle bone, and take off another ghoul¡¯s head.


    With the element of surprise almost fully finished for now, it turns into a melee. I duck the slash from the head ghoul, as I draw my knives and cut at it.


    The ghoul jumps back, hissing at me like a feral cat, but it wasn¡¯t paying enough attention. One of the hounds takes it by surprise as it manages to pounce on, and then tear the arm off of, the leading ghoul.


    At that point, I rush up and sink both of my knives into the ghoul¡¯s cranium. From there the fight just gets easier. Without a leader to organize them and give them orders, two of the ghouls start fighting each other, and we swiftly kill the rest. Ghouls are one of the stranger undead, as without a leader, the pack will fight each other until a leader is chosen. Even in the middle of combat with someone else.


    Works for me though.


    As the last ghoul dies, everything except me and the hounds, freezes. I look around, and see Anubis standing a little ways away looking at the city.


    I walk up, with one hound on either side, and he turns and smiles.


    ¡°Congratulations kid. You¡¯ve passed the trial. And you were right, you¡¯re going to be a Mortician. Though that means you get to figure out blood and bone magic on your own from now on.¡±


    I chuckle, looking at the hounds, ¡°Somehow, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s going to be as big a problem as I once feared.¡±


    He smiles his strange smile. ¡°No, no it isn¡¯t. And I imagine they¡¯ll be a great help to you during your travels,¡± he sighs, ¡°This world was once very much like your Earth. But the necromancers here failed their duty to the dead, and this is what happened.¡±


    I nod my head, my mood somber once more. Realizing that this could be Earth one day, makes me shiver in fear.


    ¡°I won¡¯t let this happen to my home,¡± I say.


    He looks at me and smiles again, ¡°I believe it. Before I go, I have a gift from all of the Gods of Death." He hands me two masks, one silver, the other gold.


    "At least now, you can tell them apart." he laughs as he fades away, and that inky darkness sweeps me away again.

 Finding a Party

    I step out of the darkness and have to put my hand up as the light is slightly blinding. Thankfully I did, as once I put my hand down I see Ashley, Alyssa, and Felicia armed and ready for combat. That¡¯s when I realize why they are like that as both of the hounds are growling, which is rather impressive since they don¡¯t actually have vocal cords.


    ¡°Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!¡± I shout, waving my arms about like a madman. Instantly, both of the hounds sit and cock their heads. I¡¯m sure if they had tongues, they¡¯d be out, and I can feel that they¡¯re laughing at me.


    The women are glaring at the dogs and look at me. ¡°What are those? And where did they come from?¡±


    I sigh, ¡°Well, I passed the trial. I¡¯m now a Mortician, a Necromancer who specializes in Blood and Bone magic. Anubis told me right before I was sent back. And these are my familiars. We haven¡¯t figured out what their names are yet, but Anubis said they wanted to stay with me, and well, how much do you know about familiars?¡± I ask the last at Ashley.


    ¡°Plenty, as Reginald and the twins are my familiars. That¡¯s what beast tamers do, we contract animals and monsters into familiar contracts. The contract supplies magic that gives us limited telepathy, and forms a link between us.¡± She still hasn¡¯t set down her sword yet.


    ¡°Well,¡± I say, ¡°The Necromancer version, or at least the correct necromancer version, is that we form a contract with the souls of our familiars, sharing our souls together. So these guys are just as much a part of me as I¡¯m a part of them now. Yes, it hurts. But it is also worth it. The world I just saw¡­¡± I drift off, trying to cope with the pain of a world where unlife has grown so powerful and evil is just that painful.


    Alyssa is the first to lower her weapon, and she comes forward a bit, ¡°How bad was it?¡±


    I realize that that¡¯s part of what Anubis wanted me to do. To warn everyone what will happen if the Unlife is allowed to grow unchecked. If there aren¡¯t any necromancers willing to do the right thing over the easy thing.


    ¡°The world I was taken to was one that had been overrun by Unlife. Life was still there, but the sky was red like blood, and there were cracks in the land that I¡¯m pretty sure were filled with green soul fire. These two,¡± I motion towards the hounds, ¡°Were massacred along with the rest of their pack of dogs by ghouls. The ghouls had captured the souls of the hounds and I¡¯m guessing threw them into the cracks. But these two remained. Both had been beheaded in the end, though I had to go through a mound of bodies to reach them. They wanted revenge, and to help me stop what happened to their world from happening to ours.¡±


    As I describe the hellish world, the girls¡¯ faces grew pale. Hearing about it is horrifying enough, but to actually have been there? I don¡¯t truly have the words to describe, but it was enough.


    ¡°That world is why we need good necromancers. People who are able to walk the path between living and dead and not give in to temptation. Without Necromancers to put the dead back where they belong, our world may end up like that one.¡±


    Ashley pales a little more at that, as she knows best what some people are doing to fledgling necromancers. There is a lot of fear built up around the dead, and we both know it won¡¯t go away easily.


    I nod at her, before looking at the objects in my hands. Two masks, made specifically for my hounds. One mask is silver, and now that I look closer seems to have engravings of stars and moons on it. Then I see the other marks, the ones that tell me this mask was enchanted to do something.


    Suspicious, I nod at the hounds, ¡°Which one wants the silver mask?¡± One of them steps forward, and as I place the mask on the skull, the magic snaps it tight to the skull.


    And then there is a normal dog with bright blue eyes.


    Somewhat shocked, I realize what Anubis meant about being able to tell them apart. I can feel that the hound isn¡¯t actually changed, besides having a mask on its face now. However, my eyes tell me it is a whole healthy dog.


    But on the top of its head is a crescent moon, with a star in the middle open space. As I¡¯m looking, the other hound nudges the golden mask onto its face, and his head is the same, but he has a sunburst on the top of his head. I¡¯m so astonished, I almost don¡¯t hear Ashley mutter, ¡°You could have done that sooner¡­¡±


    I turn to look at her, ¡°I think Anubis was watching just now, to see the looks on everyone¡¯s faces, because he returned me just after giving them to me.¡±


    It acquiesces Ashley for the time being. She changes subject with, ¡°The guild charter states that you are only able to take one specialization test at D rank, you¡¯ll have to wait until C rank to take the Cleric test. Between now and then, you must accomplish ten C rank quests at a minimum before considering your sub specialization.¡±


    I nod my head. I hadn¡¯t known that, but it doesn¡¯t surprise me. The guild wants to be sure it has the best people possible, and if it put out people who took all the tests without gaining any combat experience, it¡¯d be a laughing stock.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, though I would like to visit the Temple of Sobek and at least become a priest of Anubis. I know he has an altar there.¡± At this Ashley nods, and says, ¡°That¡¯s on you. I officially welcome you as the D rank Guild member, Mortician Daniel Greyman. May you and your party find glory with honor.¡± As she finishes, she gives me a chest salute, one hand against the heart, arm held straight horizontal across her chest. I return the salute, and say, ¡°Thank you Guild Master, and I¡¯m sorry for troubling you so much.¡±Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    She laughs as she drops the salute. ¡°At least you have a lot of interesting things happening around you that make up for the pain in the ass that you are. I¡¯ve got to go, but let me know how you¡¯re party searching goes. Good luck.¡± She turns and leaves, with Felicia following closely behind her.


    *****


    Alyssa and I exit the guild hall at street level. Compared to how the streets looked even just four years ago, there is a remarkable improvement. The remaining pieces of rubble are so large, they need to be broken down before they can be moved. The cars that used to litter the street have all been scrapped down to the metal, and that metal has gone into making weapons and armor for adventurers, soldiers and guardsman.


    Alyssa and I find a restaurant where the owner doesn¡¯t care that he¡¯s serving a necromancer. Granted, we had to find one first, as most have been informed by this point that I¡¯m a necromancer. Some even had pictures up saying that if you even looked like me you¡¯d be escorted out of the building.


    The restaurant we eventually found had advertising up for world famous Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza. The owner is an extremely old Italian couple. I mean, they¡¯re so old that I can almost see how long they have left, but both of them are extremely kind. They see that I¡¯ve earned my D rank with the Guild and bring out a pizza for us to celebrate. They don¡¯t even flinch when I mention I¡¯m a necromancer, the woman saying, ¡°That¡¯s nice dear, would you like some more tea?¡±


    It confuses me, but Alyssa finds it hilarious.


    We start going through the files that Alyssa got from the guild hall on who we should invite to join us. I also explain to her that we¡¯ve already got a mission. Indianapolis is calling me, I know I can¡¯t leave it alone for long.


    We eventually settle on interviewing three people, and I stay with the newly named Oro and Argento. The old woman, Mama Ricci as she insists I call her, is more than happy to put us up for the night, I think because she knows that Oro and Argento are scarier than anything that might try to rob the store.


    Alyssa went to find the three people, as she was worried about ¡°accidents¡± happening if I went out into the city after dark at this point. Enough people have issues with any necromancer, never mind that I¡¯m not like the others.


    The three we settled on were a tough decision, though we ended up doing it for two reasons. One, every single one of them has been part of multiple groups, and they were mistreated or kicked out of the group for as far as we can determine, no good reason. And two, they all tend to fir into the same mold we do, covering multiple areas all on our own.


    First is Erin Carbonneau. She¡¯s a French Canadian that took the ninja specialization route. She¡¯s originally from near Vancouver, which has been a serious problem for her. She was reportedly down in central Michigan, when Frost giants attacked Vancouver, taking it over. Since then, the Giant¡¯s favorite tactic is to send humans, either slaves or voluntary servants, to infiltrate a new settlement, bring its defenses down, and then the Giants raid and capture more slaves for themselves.


    She¡¯s been dealing with the prejudice from that, as well as mistrust because she has the Ninja class specialization for rouge. Everyone knows it¡¯s available, however no one knows what needs to be done to get the class, as she won¡¯t tell anyone about it. With that combination, every group she¡¯s been ¡°part of¡±, has kicked her when she wouldn¡¯t tell them how to become ninjas.


    The other two are brother and sister. They¡¯ve been kicked and mistreated by multiple groups, largely because of the sister, Jessie Williams. She¡¯s a Singer, one of the bard specializations. However, her style of music is one that a lot of people don¡¯t appreciate.


    She sings either Irish Folk Music, which her previous groups have said sounds like funeral music, or classic rock and roll. Songs like Stairway to Heaven, and Highway to Hell. The mixture is enough to make most of her previous groups kick her, and when she goes, her brother goes with her.


    John Williams is a knight. Strong, Brave, and a shield between his enemies and his friends. He¡¯s also extremely loyal to his sister, who is his only living relative. None of his previous groups have kicked him, however he has received the same treatment as his sister when he voices his opinion, or when they leave a group who kicks her. John and Jessie definitely come as a pair.


    There is a third reason we chose those three. I asked Anubis to give me a hint as to who would be willing to work with a necromancer. After all the other options were taken out, these three were the only ones left to tell the truth.


    *****


    It takes nearly forty minutes and the sun is down when they get back. Alyssa managed to get all three of them to agree to come, and at least talk with us. She¡¯s fuming when she gets back to the Pizzeria, so much so that Papa Ricci, which he insists on being called after he finds out that Mama Ricci insisted on her name, sends out an order of cheesy breadsticks. Apparently he¡¯s got just enough talent with Fire Magic to heat the oven and such on his own, and Mama Ricci has enough talent with Water Magic to keep the drinks cold. Not really sure why this place isn¡¯t more popular.


    And then I realize it¡¯s because the building is haunted. Not actual ghosts or souls, just the echoes that can happen when extremely emotional things happen in a location. Enough to creep people out, but not enough to actually need a necromancer. Of course, I can deal with it, but that¡¯s something I¡¯d need to talk with them about before I do.


    Anyway, the three newcomers enter the pizzeria, and we all sit down. Alyssa is chowing thru a basket of cheesy bread sticks on her own, and Jessie is looking at the dogs strangely. I swear she jumps a little when Oro looks at her.


    John is a bigger guy than I had actually been expecting. He stands at about six foot three, and must weigh two hundred and thirty pounds. He¡¯s clearly young though, and if I had to guess, he just turned eighteen. His sister, Jessie, looks a little bit older, and if I had to guess she¡¯s been a singer for a while now. She¡¯s about five foot six, maybe seven, and weighs a hundred sixty probably. She also has a rapier on her hip, just like John has a bastard sword and his shield, as well as a pair of hand axes that he can probably throw with some accuracy.


    The last member of the party, I know has weapons, though I can¡¯t see them. Hells, half the time I can hardly see her, as she likes to stand near shadows and such anyway. Erin Carbonneau, is a beautiful woman, with slightly striking features that clearly denote she has some Asian ancestry somewhere. If I had to guess, I would say her mother. She¡¯s about five foot nine, and probably weighs a hundred sixty to a hundred ninety. It¡¯s hard to tell as I haven¡¯t seen her yet, just her face and some general ideas about her bust from observation.


    With this group all sitting around the table, I decide to get started with why they¡¯re here.

 The Dead Enders

    ¡°All right,¡± I say, ¡°I expect you probably know who I am. I know who you are thanks to looking at your files from the Guild. But, to be fair, everyone introduce yourselves, and give an idea about your combat ability.¡±


    I continue, ¡°My name is Daniel Greyman, my class is Necromancer, with specialization toward Mortician. For you all, that means I am a proficient spellcaster, and can use blood and bone magic. Bone magic also allows me to create enchanted objects, as long as I know the required spells to make said item. Though, be warned, I use bones to actually make the items as well.¡±


    ¡°This part is optional, but I¡¯m hoping to get you all to trust me, so here goes. My biggest flaw, in my opinion, is that I can¡¯t guess weight, for anything. Doesn¡¯t matter what I¡¯m guessing the weight of, I will get it wrong, normally saying it¡¯s heavier. The only time I said something was lighter than it was, the person was an elf. And then, the biggest strength I have is respect. I respect everyone, even those that don¡¯t like me, or I don¡¯t like. I might mess with them, but until someone deliberately loses my respect, I will respect them as well.¡±


    That last part, while completely true, I just added in. I want this team to like me, and work with me. So much so that I gave them the biggest personal strength and weakness I have in my opinion. Just goes to show a little about how much I want this to work.


    John clears his throat, but as he goes to speak, Alyssa chimes up with, ¡°I¡¯ll go next.¡± I can see that John is slightly upset, but he just sighs, and let¡¯s Alyssa introduce herself.


    ¡°My names Alyssa McGuire, I¡¯m twenty two, and I¡¯m a ranger. For those that don¡¯t know, I¡¯m basically an archer, rogue, and survivalist all rolled into one. I have a bow and two short swords, and can fight like a rogue or an archer, but my true benefit is when I¡¯m setting traps and things like that, because my traps are easier to set up, harder to spot, and tend to be more dangerous. Anyway, my strength is organization. I was a guild receptionist for a while, and I managed the food stores for one of the guild houses outside the city. My biggest weakness is my family, as all of them are still alive, and they haven¡¯t actually disowned me, but we don¡¯t talk since I¡¯ve joined the guild, which hurts.¡±


    John stands up, and says, ¡°I¡¯ll go next. My name¡¯s John, this is Jessie,¡± waving at his sister, ¡°We¡¯ve been going from group to group for a couple of years now, largely because the dirt bags want me to tank, and Jessie to open her legs and shut up. They haven¡¯t realized yet that I¡¯m her shield, and she buffs me. Not to mention that she¡¯s pretty fierce with her rapier. Anyway, I¡¯m a Knight, sometimes called the close combat tank. I am fully capable of taking some hits and keep on, but I¡¯m able to dish it out as well. That¡¯s not including my shield techniques, which lets me stun and throw people off guard when I hit them with it.¡±


    Before he can continue, Jessie speaks up, ¡°I can take mine from here bro,¡± she says, smiling at him as he gives her a look. ¡°I¡¯m Jessie Williams, my class is Bard with a specialization towards Singer. I¡¯m decent with my rapier but my specialization allows me to use magic with my voice, which allows me to buff my allies, as long as they enjoy the music, and can also throw off the enemy. Unfortunately for our history with other groups, I prefer singing old rock and roll, and Irish folk songs. I can sing other things, but I don¡¯t enjoy the songs as well, so the magic is weaker.¡±


    I nod my head, that makes sense. Magic is like a super powered child. It is more willing to follow emotions and feelings than logic at least if you¡¯re using a magic like hers which is reliant on just her voice instead of a bunch of factors.


    ¡°Anyway, both my brother and I, our biggest strength is our teamwork. We have been together for so long, we don¡¯t even have to think half the time about what the other is doing, we just know. And our weakness, that would probably be the same thing. Normally he¡¯s the one who does the introduction thing, as I don¡¯t trust people until I know them. And we can be slightly fractious with other people, especially if we think they¡¯re taking advantage of us.¡±


    Every one nods around the table, and I smile, ¡°Well, know that we won¡¯t be taking advantage of you, I mean, me and John are going to be the only guys in the group! And I frown on that sort of thing as well.¡±


    I motion with my hand to the last person, ¡°How about you?¡±


    ¡°Pass.¡± She says, without even considering.


    ¡°Well, then you can leave. I¡¯m not being prejudiced because you¡¯re French Canadian from Vancouver. I¡¯m not being judgemental because you¡¯re a ninja. However if we can¡¯t build at least a solid working relationship, we don¡¯t need you, and I¡¯ll find someone else to fill the last spot on this team.¡±


    She looks at me in shock, before a smirk comes across her face, ¡°This is cause you¡¯re a Necromancer isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Absolutely,¡± I agree, ¡°I¡¯ve learned that if you can trust someone, trust them unconditionally. If you can¡¯t, don¡¯t. Introducing yourself right now, is you allowing us to know you, and start to build that trust. So, what¡¯s your choice going to be?¡±


    She sighs. ¡°My name¡¯s Erin Carbonneau. As he already mentioned, I¡¯m French Canadian, from Vancouver, or as it¡¯s being called now, Jotunhiem. Also, I¡¯m a ninja, which before anyone asks, I can¡¯t tell anyone anything about.¡± She looks at me, ¡°Happy?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Erin,¡± I look at the rest of the group, ¡°Now, if everyone is interested, we already have a main job. I received a mission from Anubis, my patron. That¡¯s why I chose to come out as a Necromancer now, instead of later.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Everyone is interested now. Missions from Gods are a whole different story than regular guild missions.


    ¡°The mission,¡± I continue, ¡°is to investigate Indianapolis. I suspect that the Prince will be trying to keep it quiet, however Anubis told me that the city has gone completely silent. The undead are suspected to be involved, which is why I was given this mission, as I¡¯m the only Necromancer close enough to do anything.¡±


    Everyone nods, though Jessie asks, ¡°I thought necromancers used Undead, not dealt with them.¡±


    At this point I sigh, ¡°There are two types of Necromancers,¡± I explain.


    ¡°The first type are like me, where our objective is to put the souls of the dead where they belong, and to keep feral undead from rising. Then you have the second type. They are the ones who consume the souls of the dead to get stronger, but this comes at a terrible cost, and when they die they become liches. The other necromancer classes all do similar things if they are corrupted, turning into some form of greater undead.¡±


    ¡°Wait a second,¡± John says, ¡°There are other Necromancer classes?¡±


    I smile, ¡°Tell you what, I¡¯ll explain a bit of what Anubis has explained to me, and we¡¯ll see where we can go from there. However, let¡¯s get together a list of everything we¡¯ll think we need for Indianapolis first. I want us to leave here within the week, if no one has any objections?¡±


    For once, something goes entirely right, and without surprise.


    *****


    Me and John are sitting at the table. The girls went upstairs with Mama Ricci, and Papa Ricci is finishing up the dishes in the kitchen. Both me and John are sitting, drinking beers, when he asks me again, about Necromancers.


    ¡°So what are these other classes that Necromancer¡¯s have?¡±


    ¡°Well, Necromancers are just like the other classes. You mix two things together, you get a third. For example, you mix most of the Guardian classes with Necromancer,¡± I say while motioning at him, ¡°You get something Anubis called a Death Knight.¡±


    ¡°Wait, what?¡± John says, looking slightly bewildered.


    I laugh, ¡°Yeah, Death Knight. Just like the other necro classes, Death Knights have two forms. Good form, they are kind of like Paladins of Death, using necromancy in place of normal holy magic. Anubis also told me that most Death Knights are proficient with Bone Magic and Death Magic. They can create a small army of skeletons at a moment¡¯s notice, and they enchant their weapon and armor with various bones. Gives them a bit of a creepy vibe, but they are impressive. If they go bad, they start consuming souls to get stronger, and eventually become Wights, or rarely they¡¯ll stay as an undead Death Knight until they reach essentially General rank. Then they become Death Lords.¡±


    To his credit, John doesn¡¯t even flinch. ¡°What else?¡±


    I chuckle, ¡°Well, the Dirgist comes to mind as well, as that is a Bard and a Necromancer. Very similar to what your sister does for you, except she¡¯d need to sing some form of Dirge as well. The dirge would guide the souls of the dead into the afterlife, and sort of force them to go as well. It¡¯s a powerful ability. If a Dirgist goes bad though, they normally become banshees. Dirgists normally go bad by creating a swarm of undead to serve them, using their music to command and control.¡±


    John nods, ¡°That sounds pretty amazing really. So, what about necromancer and soldier?¡±


    ¡°Well, that goes one of three ways actually. Soldiers are just so varied, it gets to be complicated really quickly. So, if a soldier that uses a ranged weapon picks up necromancer, they normally become a Blood Archer. Blood Archers, or gunners as the case may be, use blood magic in combination with their ranged techniques. Now, if a Blood Archer goes bad, they just become a zombie or if they are truly powerful, they¡¯ll become a vampyr. That¡¯s not to be confused with Vampires now.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the difference?¡±


    ¡°Vampyr¡¯s are like ghouls, except they just want the blood. They are also capable of magic and such, but Vampyr¡¯s are like an actual Vampire¡¯s hunting dogs. Of course, that would be the Undead Vampires, not the living vampires. Yes, both exist,¡± I finish, getting a slightly incredulous look from John. He shakes his head, and waves for me to continue.


    ¡°Similarly, a swordsman, or other weapon specialist, including the weapon master class, they become a class that Anubis called the Knight of the Pale Horse. Apparently, these knights become adept at wielding their weapons and having death energy flow through the blade, or something like that. Anubis wouldn¡¯t tell me more, other than that. Though he did mention that cavaliers do the same as the other weapon specialists.¡±


    ¡°Now the odd one is monk. Monks combining with Necromancers actually become devoted to one of the Gods of Death, and they become really fucking scary in my opinion. The class is called Plague Monk, and has a lot of similarities with rogues. However, Plague Monks that go bad use blood magic to unleash plagues that absorb souls as well as killing people and, eventually they become Plague Bearers, and then Plague Lords. Plague Monks that stay good visit areas that are experiencing disease to try and stop the disease, and ease the souls of the dead that died from the disease onward.¡±


    ¡°Mages that become Necromancers are odd, and it really doesn¡¯t happen very often, but then the result is variable on element. A Pyromancer would become a Soul Flame Magician, which is the only class to be able to use soul flames. A hydromancer would become a Blood Magician, able to use blood for water, and things like that. An Aeromancer would be known as a Scarecrow, apparently due to some of the legends that we forgot. And a Geomancer would be a Gravedigger Mage.  All of them become demi liches or liches if they go bad. ¡°


    John waves a hand, ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s enough of that. You keep going, and I¡¯m probably going to have nightmares. But I am interested. I mean, Death Knight sounds pretty amazing, and I wouldn¡¯t mind letting people go to the rest they¡¯ve earned, you know?¡±


    I smile, ¡°Trust me I know.¡±


    *****


    Gathering our supplies took us a bit, but we finish up in four days. The hardest part was finding people who would sell to us. A few times when we couldn¡¯t find anyone else with what we wanted, we would talk with Mama or Papa Ricci and they¡¯d pick it up for us.


    People started calling us the Dead Enders, because, and I quote, ¡°Our entire group is just the dead end for losers.¡±


    I mean, come on. At least if you¡¯re going to hate on us, make it a legitimate reason or excuse. That¡¯s just sad, and slightly telling of the intelligence of the opposition.


    However, what surprised us, is we actually like the name. It¡¯s got a bit of double meaning, as we intend to go deal with a lot of undead. I¡¯m a Necromancer, as well, so the whole thing sounds pretty good to us. I¡¯ll admit, that by the time we leave, I¡¯m used to the name, and it¡¯s grown on me as well.


    And now, the Dead Enders are heading for Indianapolis.

 Necromancy! Get your Necromancy!

    As we started out, things were very quiet, normal you could say. Granted, we were still within city limits or former city limits I should say. This area was heavily patrolled by adventurers, the self-styled ¡°army of Chicago¡± and the roads were more heavily patrolled as such. The Prince of Chicago had even the forethought to start building way stations, really little more than towers next to the road, but they were each manned by at least a squad of guards.


    So it wasn¡¯t until we had actually left the areas around Chicago that we had to be on our guard. Call it about twenty miles, or the time we switched over to the old I-65. We chose I-65 because we knew from the old maps that it went straight into Indianapolis. We weren¡¯t planning on staying on it of course, just taking it south a ways, as the highway went into Indianapolis from the East side of the city, rather than due north which we wanted.


    We wanted the North side as there was the Morse Reservoir as well as White River there. The White River went straight through Indianapolis, and would serve as a good deterrent for several types of Undead, and the Morse Reservoir, along with several other lakes to the North, would hopefully give us good camping spots. We would have chosen the Eagle Creek Reservoir, but a large section of that had been a park before the change, and many parks tended to attract unsavory creatures that we wouldn¡¯t really want to deal with.


    As we walked, we got to know each other a little better. The talking we did during the first twenty miles or so at least solidified that we could all get along. Jessie and Erin talked about fashion choices or something like that. John, Alyssa, and I though talked about the benefits of certain types of traps and weapons.


    ¡°Well,¡± John says, ¡°I prefer using swords and shields, though I know how to also use axes or maces. None of them are really difficult to use in my opinion.¡±


    I nod, ¡°Swords are fairly common, and with undead can be a solid choice, if you¡¯re fighting ghouls or other undead who use a basic nervous system still. However, the mace would be better for zombie and skeleton types. Certain zombies have a habit of still being able to move after you¡¯ve cut them up, and skeletons don¡¯t exactly have skin to cut or stab.¡±


    As John nods, Alyssa asks, ¡°How about arrows? I normally use my compound bow, and I get that fighting skeletons would be hard for me, but what could I do?¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± I say, ¡°Ghouls and the similar undead there would be fairly easy to fight. Most of them are dead, but basically infected with a specific type of necromantic magic that acts like a virus. The natural magic flow of the bodies that are infected is enough to allow the virus for lack of a better word, to spread, through bite or other means. Once it has taken over that completely, it cuts it off from outside sources, which kills the person, but also traps the soul. Truly terrible.¡±


    ¡°Anyway,¡± I continue, ¡°Other Undead you¡¯d probably have a good chance against are liches. They are spell casters, however every lich has something called a phylactery. That phylactery tends to be extremely weak, and if you can find it and smash it, it¡¯ll instantly kill the Lich. Many of the younger Liches tend to keep their phylacteries on or near them, as hiding it might mean someone stumbling across it and killing them by accident. So if you can spot that on them, you can take out a Lich fairly quickly.¡±


    She nods, and we lapse into silence for a little bit. Then I am surprised once more.


    ¡°So, Daniel,¡± Alyssa says, ¡°Could you teach any of us how to be Necromancers?¡±


    *****


    I swear, I think this is exactly what Anubis wanted. We set up camp for the Night, and all four of my new team mates are looking at me interested. Well, I think Erin is looking at me, but she put her hood up, so I can¡¯t exactly tell.


    I was non-committal with Alyssa when she asked, as I had never thought about that before. However, becoming a Necromancer is in fact easier than any other path of magic. It just has a lot more options available, and a lot more ways to go wrong as well.


    ¡°First, I¡¯ll start by explaining that Necromancy is very different from other forms of magic. Those who use Necromancy, in any form, are taking an obligation upon themselves. For those of us that are essentially Good, or at least following the rules of the world, we help to send the dead back, or to send the souls of the dead on to the next world. For the bad, they absorb those souls, essentially consuming them to allow themselves to become more powerful, but once they reach a certain point, their souls are so black, they become undead themselves.¡±


    ¡°Necromancers have many different professions, as I was explaining to John the other night,¡± I nod at John, smiling, ¡°And there are many ways for those who become Necromancers to fall into the dark side as it were. But, the simplest way to see if anyone has the talent to become a Necromancer, is to search for Death Energy.¡±


    I hold up a pair of freshly killed rabbits. ¡°In helping with that, Alyssa caught these a short while before we set camp. Now, I want everyone who¡¯s interested to meditate, and sense the dissipating death of these rabbits. The energy will feel cold, and dark. Take your time.¡±


    As I finish, I pull out my knife, and start cleaning the rabbits. They¡¯ll make a good stew.


    *****This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Twenty minutes later, and I get my surprise.


    ¡°I think I feel something,¡± Alyssa says. I suppose I shouldn¡¯t be that surprised, as she is a Ranger. Ranger¡¯s training tends to involve sensing things, a lot more than other classes. I quickly check, switching my eyes over into seeing Death Energy, and sure enough, Alyssa has gathered a small ring of it around her. More surprising, everyone has, to varying degrees. Jessie has the least gathered, as I think she prefers the living, however John is the next person I would suspect of feeling anything.


    ¡°All right,¡± I say, ¡°You can stop. All of you would be able to train as Necromancers. The key to this is the gathering of Death Energy. Where most mages or other spell casters use magic energy, Necromancers use Death Energy a lot more. When you¡¯re sensing for Death Energy like that, it gathers into rings around a person. Basically it¡¯s attracted to you because you¡¯re looking for it.¡±


    ¡°Jessie, you gathered the least of it, so being a Necromancer would be the most difficult to you, at least with learning death magic. However, as I mentioned to John, there is a Necromancer class that would be essentially perfect for you. When a Bard chooses to be a Necromancer, or vice versa, they become a Dirgist. Dirgist is one of the most dangerous Necromancer professions, as Dirgist use Soul Magic more than any others. And Soul Magic is the easiest to become corrupted.¡±


    ¡°What exactly does a Dirgist do?¡± she asks.


    ¡°A Dirgist uses songs that are woven with magic to usher the souls of the dead to the next world. The Dirgist can also use other magics with their songs, however the main songs a dirgist sings are of course, Dirges.¡±


    She smiles, ¡°Well, I was worried you would say I¡¯d have to absolutely give up rock and roll. But honestly, half of the Irish Folk Music I know already sound like Dirges, so I should be fine, right?¡±


    I blink. Hadn¡¯t expected that answer, but she¡¯s not wrong. I laugh, ¡°You can say that. If you want, I can try to teach you some on our way to the city. That of course goes for all of you.¡±


    ¡°John,¡± I continue, ¡°You gathered the Death Energy the fastest for those without training in sensing things, which means being a Necromancer wouldn¡¯t be that difficult for you. And I think you¡¯d probably be a good Death Knight as well. Bone magic is what I¡¯d be teaching you.¡±


    He nods, apparently pleased.


    ¡°Alyssa, you being a Ranger means you¡¯ve had training with sensing things before, which really translates easily to sensing energy. There is a class that you could test for, it¡¯s called Death Stalker. Essentially, you just need to get even better at sensing Death Energy, and souls, and then learning how to kill every type of undead. Not too difficult, and you¡¯d be joining John for some lessons on Bone magic, as well as needing to learn blood magic.¡±


    ¡°Hang on, what about Blood Archer?¡± John asks.


    ¡°Blood Archer is for normal ranged combatants. Those who treat ranged combat more like hunting, such as Rangers, instead go to become Death Stalkers.¡± As I finish the explanation there, he nods, and Alyssa looks slightly ecstatic. Strange girl.


    ¡°Erin,¡± I say, coming to the last party member, ¡°you are the one person I¡¯d be slightly worried about becoming a Necromancer. Not because you didn¡¯t gather Death Energy or anything, but from what Anubis has told me about the stealth classes becoming Necromancers.¡±


    ¡°When you combine a Stealth Class with a Necromancer, you get something called a Ghostwalker. Ghostwalker¡¯s specialty is being able to use the death energy you¡¯ve gathered to actually step into the realm between life and death, also known as the Ghost Realm. Some might call it the Ethereal, but any way you look at it, it¡¯s where the souls of the dead are at, before they go on to the next world. Not many things can see into the Ghost Realm, and there are even fewer things that live there, but they are all really fucking scary. Thankfully, they¡¯re also rare as shit. But the problem is, I have no idea how you would get training on that, so you¡¯d need to appeal to a god or goddess to figure it out.¡± I finish this up with an apologetic tone, as I feel I do kind of owe these people. They are the first people to actually take an interest in being good necromancers, and I feel like I should repay them for that alone.


    Erin simple nods, then says, ¡°It is okay. I¡¯ll send a prayer to my goddess tonight.¡±


    I nod. I don¡¯t plan on asking who her Goddess is, as I think that would be a bit rude. But if she thinks that will help, go for it. Keeps me from trying to reach Anubis to explain something that isn¡¯t exactly in his normal area.


    *****


    Once everyone settles down a bit from the training, Alyssa brings up another thing.


    ¡°Well, once we had decided our route there, I decided to pick up some other quests for us. All D rank quests, so they should be at least something of a challenge, but we should be able to manage.¡±


    Everyone, including myself, nods. ¡°Well, what did you pick up for us,¡± I ask, as John stokes the campfire down to coals.


    ¡°They had three requests that we could do on our way there or when we¡¯re on our way back. The first was a request from Wheatfield, simple Goblin Subjugation quest. Though the reason it got ranked D is because apparently the goblins are being led by at least one Troll.¡±


    Everyone groans at that, and then I laugh. ¡°Nobody likes Trolls huh?¡± We all chuckle.


    Alyssa continues, ¡°Then there is a report about some kind of water monster at the Lakes of the Four Seasons, which actually we should reach tomorrow. Not a lot of detail, other than some scared fisherman who put up the request and let the guild judge it. But the community was willing to put up the reward of two hundred Iron Coins for the monsters head.¡±


    I nod at that, and can see John looking serious. I motion for him to say what¡¯s on his mind.


    ¡°The Lakes of the Four Seasons are a decent sized community that was one of the first to join Chicago. They keep the villages name that, because they were a gated community that banded together after the change. If they are requesting someone to deal with a monster problem, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it¡¯s already killed at least one person. We¡¯ll have to ask for more information once we get there.¡±


    That bit of information sobers us up, especially since we just found out we¡¯re going to be doing this, and because it¡¯s going to be happening tomorrow.


    ¡°The last one,¡± Alyssa says, clearly finishing up and thinking about our job tomorrow,¡± I figured we could do on our way back to Chicago. It¡¯s actually a general monster subjugation quest, and it¡¯s taking place in about month in South Bend. The Prince is the requestor behind that one, and he wants a general monster sweep up into Michigan. Basically kill every monster between South Bend and Kalamazoo.¡±


    We all nod our heads again, and I smile. ¡°Well, since you¡¯ve volunteered to be our guild relations person, I think we¡¯ll just let you put up our options in the future with the guild. That way, we all don¡¯t have to try and guess which missions everyone is taking. All in favor?¡±


    As everyone but Alyssa says, ¡°Aye!¡± she groans and says, ¡°Should have learned. Navy, Never again volunteer yourself. Dammit!¡±

 Lakes of the Four Seasons Part 1

    We got up early the next morning, looking to capitalize on the daylight. Lakes of the Four Seasons wasn¡¯t too far, and we should be able to get there by lunch if we were lucky.


    As we wrap up the camp, we quickly become aware that all of us are not exactly morning people. Thankfully John at least carries coffee, and we finish putting the campfire out after everyone has at least a cup.


    That works for the first hour. By that point, all of us are awake enough to attempt conversation.


    ¡°Erin, did you get to talk to your goddess last night?¡± I ask.


    ¡°Yes,¡± she says, ¡°She said that a Ghost Walker¡¯s skillset is actually very close to my Ninja skill set, relying heavily on stealth, but instead of being physical, it focuses more on dealing with the dead.¡±


    I nod. That really does make sense.


    ¡°Does she have a training plan for you?¡± I ask.


    She nods again, ¡°Yes, but she said I need to learn the basics of Soul and Blood magic first.¡±


    ¡°All right, I can teach you both of those.¡±


    As we continue onward, we get off the highway at what used to be Exit 249. One thing I like about Indiana is that the highway isn¡¯t above the regular streets or anything, so it isn¡¯t exactly hard to get off the highway. We walk over towards the Lakes of the Four Seasons, straight down the street. According to the map we have, only slightly updated from the Change, the community here has set themselves up on what was once essentially an island in the middle of the Lakes, however the Lakes have certainly grown since then.


    As we get closer, we start seeing the fishmen. Fishmen are honestly more like goblins than actual men, but they are amphibious, and their heads are more like an actual fish head than anything else. Except the teeth on these guys remind me more of piranhas than any normal fish.


    ¡°Careful,¡± Alyssa says, ¡°These guys are almost exactly like goblins, they prefer to swarm weak opponents, and with them this close to the community there must be something going on. On their own, on land, these guys are cowards.¡±


    We all take a moment and arm up before going any further. We¡¯ve only seen a few small groups of these fishmen, but if they are just like goblins, for them to be this close to a community of humans is not only rare, but signifies that there is a bigger problem here.


    This is actually my first time seeing everyone in their ¡°battle gear¡±. It¡¯s not exactly convenient to wear for extended amounts of time, though I am surprised that the four of them put up together to purchase a decent sized bag of holding. Then I realize that some of the relevant questions Alyssa asked me before we left make more sense now. She was asking what gear I used or would want to store to see if I wanted to chip in for the bag.


    ¡°Guys,¡± I say quietly, ¡°Next time let me know you¡¯re going to buy a bag of holding. I can make them with Bone Magic.¡±


    They all pause as they look at me, and I admit, I blush.


    Alyssa sighs, ¡°How many do you have?¡±


    ¡°Ummm, three?¡± I say, feeling kind of bad about this, ¡°But I only actually use one of them. The other two are for necromancy supplies. Bones and Blood. But my main bag, is only about a quarter filled. Though it does have a good amount of food as well.¡±


    The three newest members of our group look at me, while Alyssa holds her head in her hands. I kind of, well, blush harder. I can actually feel my face getting redder, which is rather impressive in my head.


    Then John laughs, ¡°Well, at least we don¡¯t have to worry too much about expenses, right? If we can all produce our own bags of holding, our storage capability will be simply monstrous!¡±


    The other benefit of this is it eases the tension, and I can actually take a look at the equipment of my party.


    John is quite obviously the Tank. He¡¯s got a fairly plain steel breastplate, which is clearly fitted for him. His other pieces of armor, including steel greaves, bracers, and a helmet, are more ornate, having some Celtic knot designs on them. His round shield also has the Celtic Trinity symbol on it, and his sword seems to be just a bit better than your average steel longsword.


    Jessie on the other hand, is quite clearly an agility fighter. Not a rogue, but someone who is capable of darting in and out of combat quickly. She¡¯s wearing several pieces of leather, namely a rather unique looking leather vest, that reminds me of a corset, but more aimed at protection than making her look good. Her leather pants have some studs at her knees and her shins, while her only defense as far as I can tell is a larger bracer on her left arm, which looks like a cross between a bracer and a buckler.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Erin is interesting, as she is also clearly an agility fighter, but on the stealth side of that equation. She has a pair of katana like swords that sit at the small of her back, horizontally, and as she takes off her cloak, I notice that she¡¯s not actually wearing armor, but a ninja Gi. Covers everything, though you can tell she¡¯s a woman still, and a dangerous one at that, as I notice she has more throwing stars and knives than I had originally thought.


    Alyssa pulls a compound bow out of the bag, quickly stringing it like she¡¯s done this a million times. She¡¯s the only one who was already wearing her armor, as she has a leather ¡°ranger¡¯s¡± coat. It carries all the supplies she might possibly want, and is still comfortable enough to wear in most situations. Her coat doesn¡¯t have any actual sleeves on it, though the long sleeve shirt she wears under it complements nicely.


    All in all, while our party might be small right now, all of us do know our business. I get ready by pulling out a small bag of knuckle bones that have a variety of three spells on them. The first spell, Bone Crack, does literally that. It¡¯s essentially a Bone Magic Cantrip, but it requires that you touch the target. That¡¯s why I put them on knuckle bones. The second spell is an old favorite, Acid Blood. I don¡¯t have too many of those left, as it requires the blood from a venomous snake, and when I picked up the spell I got lucky with a former pet store that had been overrun by goblins.


    Anyway, the last spell was one that I hadn¡¯t tried yet, called Blood Scarab. Essentially the highest spell I had learned directly from Anubis, the Blood Scarab was a spell that scared the shit out of me. When the knuckle hit a viable target, which disturbingly was anything that required blood, the spell would activate, creating a small scarab. That scarab would burrow into the skin of the target, feasting on the blood, and then multiply. The catch was that it would then spread to any other targets, including possibly the caster, that shared the original targets type of blood.


    Thankfully, as Anubis explained it, monsters were different enough from humans that if I hit a monster with it, the scarabs would only go after other monsters. However, after ten minutes, the scarabs would die anyway. But that was ten minutes per scarab. So using it right now might not be a great idea. The one and only time I used this spell before was on a Troll, and I was frankly horrified. Largely because the Troll was alive until the scarabs had finished.


    After that I told myself to only use it in case of emergency.


    As we finish up our preparations, I also pull out my bone knives, though I leave them in their sheaths and just strap them onto my arms, the easiest place for them to be. They kind of look like bracers, and at least for me, I know they¡¯re quick to reach if I need them.


    I know it isn¡¯t practical, especially after Erin looks at me like I¡¯m an idiot, but putting them on my belt, or something like that is just more impractical for me.


    ¡°Dan,¡± Alyssa says, after watching me put my bone knives on, ¡°After this, let me but together some straps you can wear around your chest or something.¡±


    I nod, ¡°That would be appreciated. Before this, I didn¡¯t have a group, so I would go in with both knives in hand, or just one, and a handful of knuckle bones with spells on them. Now that I¡¯m part of a group, I know my position is going to be at the back or the middle, not on the front line, so while I want them handy, I don¡¯t need them out.¡±


    Everyone nods, slightly appreciative of the reasoning I guess.


    As we slide out of our hiding place where we were getting ready, a smallish building in front of an old catholic church, we get back onto the road. The Fishmen appear to be solely focused on looting the former town that was here before the Change, and we only end up fighting two of the small groups as we pass it by.


    All of us are sure that there is probably a larger group in the town, but first we have to find the community to see if this is the monster we¡¯re supposed to be fighting, or if there is something more.


    The two small groups we fight go down quickly, each one only being about ten fishmen. The Bone Break spell is apparently extremely effective on the fishmen, as each one that I hit with it didn¡¯t just break a bone, but broke their spines. At least I quickly put them out of their misery. Just a guess, but they must be a lot more like fish than I had thought, and the majority of their bones are probably actually hardened cartilage, which isn¡¯t affected by the spell. But apparently their spines are actual bone, judging by what happens.


    We cut through a Walgreens parking lot, across the street to the former Rees Funeral Home, and follow the parking lot there back around to a small former community area. Making a path through the former fences of the houses in this area, we quickly make it to the overgrown green of a golf course, that obviously hasn¡¯t been cared for since the Change.


    ¡°Hey,¡± we hear suddenly, and all of us instantly turn towards the sound, weapons up, and ready to fight. Erin covers our backs, in case of an ambush, and John steps up in front of everyone. The speed with which we fall into a combat formation impresses me, as well as the small group that is looking at us, mouth¡¯s agape.


    The group looking at us are clearly humans, though they¡¯ve seen better days. Two of the men in the group are holding bows, trained at us, while a third holds up his hands in a placating gesture. I look inside the house that they¡¯re clearly using as a base or something and see several more faces, some old, some not. Most clearly male, but a few women as well.


    All together, I¡¯d say they have probably twenty people here.


    I say, ¡°John, why don¡¯t you be spoke person. Most groups have the guardian fill that role anyway, I don¡¯t see a reason to break from tradition here.¡± He nods as he sheathes his sword, and Alyssa drops her bow. I notice the clear look of relief on one of the archers faces across the way, but on the other¡¯s face is a look of greed and lust.


    We¡¯ll need to deal with that. But first¡­


    ¡°We¡¯re the Dead Enders, Adventuring group out of Chicago. Are you people from the Lakes of the Four Seasons Community?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± says the middle aged man at the front, ¡°Thank the Gods you¡¯re here. We need some serious help.¡±

 Lakes of the Four Seasons Part 2

    ¡°It all started about a week ago, just after Jim sent the request with the last caravan to Chicago.¡±


    It¡¯s about five minutes later, and with the exception of Erin and a few of the locals who are scouting, keeping an eye out for the Fishmen, we all went inside the house.


    ¡°My name¡¯s Paul,¡± the middle aged man who introduced himself to us earlier says, ¡°I was one of the Village Council Members, and the one who pushed for us to get Adventurers down here the hardest. Our little Guild House had only three, and none of them knew what was going on. They supported me.¡±


    ¡°But then about a day after the caravan left, things started happening. We were using the houses between the Big Bass Lake and Holiday Lake as our community center, because it was more easily defended, but we didn¡¯t account for an enemy coming out of the water. Those Fishmen, they started swarming out of Holiday Lake, attacking people.¡±


    I nod. It¡¯s a goblin tactic, find a way to surprise your opponent, raid them for slaves and food. Though for goblins, and probably the Fishmen, those are the same things.


    ¡°Anyway, I managed to get some of the townsfolk together and we managed to get the Ferry. We lost a few more getting the Ferry across the lake to the southern shore, the shortest route, but then¡­¡±


    ¡°Then the monster got the boat as a few of the men tried to take it back to get more people.¡± Says one of the women in the room. ¡°Big sucker, looked like some kind of giant fish. He just came up and ate a section of the boat. The only good news we had was that the fishmen apparently weren¡¯t with the big fish, as they started panicking and left once the thing showed up.¡±


    ¡°So,¡± John says, ¡°The only good news out of all this is that the two sides aren¡¯t working together. The bad news is that this community is fucked.¡±


    Everyone around the room looks down, emotional because what he¡¯s said is true, though they don¡¯t like it.


    ¡°John,¡± I say, ¡°We might have a solution, but it¡¯s going to be, well, risky.¡±


    *****


    At this point, I think John wants to stab me. At the very least, he isn¡¯t happy about this.


    We¡¯re at Holiday Lake, the lake that the Fishmen came out of. We¡¯re fairly sure that this side has a village of some kind in it, as that¡¯s the only reason we can think of for the Fishmen to come out of it. This is supported by the fact that during the couple of hours we¡¯ve been here, we¡¯ve already seen three different groups of Fishmen come out of the lake, and one go into it.


    ¡°You¡¯re sure about this?¡± John asks me again.


    ¡°Positive. The scarabs can be underwater, as long as they start underwater. It¡¯s magic, it doesn¡¯t care about air or anything like that.¡±


    Our current plan is using one of my Blood Scarab spells on a Fishman while underwater. The Blood scarabs will proceed to decimate the Fishmen village, and then the remaining town folk and us will kill the other groups of Fishmen that attempt to head back to their village, or to come out of the lake.


    The added bonus being if the scarabs can catch the bigger fish monster as well, then they might eat it too. The risk with this plan is twofold though. First we¡¯ve got to hit a fishman with it, while they are still deep underwater, and two, the person who ¡°throws¡± it needs to get out quickly. That¡¯s because with the water as a conduit, I don¡¯t know if the scarabs will stick to only monsters, or if they¡¯ll just go after everyone or thing in the water.


    If it does eat everything, this entire body of water, which thankfully is completely closed off from any rivers, will be clear within thirty minutes of anything with blood. If it doesn¡¯t, or if it only focuses on monsters or something like that, we might have bigger issues, and I might have to pull out a second one.


    John wades into the lake. He¡¯s got a piece of magic equipment his sister bought for him a year ago, an Air Mask. It acts like a thirty minute scuba tank, but it is based on magic, and only covers his head. He took a pair of my bone harpoons with him. Neither have any spells on them, but they will at least give him a partial advantage once he¡¯s down there.


    We wait ten minutes, before we see John again. And when he comes out of the water, he¡¯s still about twenty feet out from the shore. But several things happen at once. First, we see the wake of something big, heading for John from his left. Then we see the strange red glow coming out of the water behind him. As soon as he gets the mask off his face and starts swimming for shore he¡¯s also shouting.


    ¡°Start firing. I¡¯ve got about twenty of the little bastards chasing me, and they are NOT happy!!!¡±


    So we start firing. The townsfolk are spread out, and I use a specially crafted femur to launch a shower of sparks up into the air. As everyone sees the sparks, they¡¯ll start killing fishmen.


    As John gets onto the shore, the fish tries to get him. And it¡¯s BIG. I hear Alyssa mutter, ¡°Giant Large mouthed Bass. High Class E monster.¡±


    Jessie starts singing, and we can hear the music start playing as she sings, ¡°Living Easy, Living Free, Season ticket on a one way ride. Asking nothing, leave me be¡­¡± she continues, and all of us actually recognize it. It sets the mode for us, and we can feel the magic strengthen us.


    Oro and Argentum take this moment to contribute, howling as she breaks into the chorus, before ripping back into the Fishmen who are trying to get out of the water.


    And that¡¯s when the blood scarabs catch up. And it is way more effective than I thought it would be. All of us quickly back up out of the water, as we watch several fish men just disappear in an explosion of red beetles, and gore. Jessie is still singing, as she turned around from the lake to deal with the first of the groups returning to the lake.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    But then I think a bit more, and shoot up the sparks to signal a retreat.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Alyssa asks me.


    ¡°Those scarabs are going to be able to survive as long as there is blood in the water. So let all the fish men groups get back into the water, and our problem is taken care of, we don¡¯t have to actually do anything.¡±


    She nods, and spreads the word around, as we retreat. The Fish men are more concerned about what¡¯s going on in the lake anyway, and none of them question why the lake has turned blood red.


    Even the massive fish, though it took a while, was killed by that spell. I watch as it comes up, belly first, and still twitching, but clearly dead.


    This is why I don¡¯t like using this spell.


    Several of the civilians are sitting off to one side as we watch the lake get cleansed in a unique red tide. The scarabs leave nothing, except the bones.


    Erin looks at me and says, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t tell people that you have a spell that can do this. This would scare the shit out of most, and have others say you¡¯re a weapon of mass destruction.


    I nod my head, ¡°Even I didn¡¯t think it would be this effective.¡±


    *****


    We take a day to recuperate after the battle. If we could even call it that. We only fought for maybe twenty minutes while the spell caught up to the fish men who had chased John.


    The survivors of the Lakes all took a vote, and have decided to head for Gary Indiana. They¡¯ll make it by noonish walking there, and at least the Prince has an outpost there, so he can help them figure out where to relocate. None of them want to stay here, and they at least have renamed the lake.


    Blood Lake. Kind of fits now that I think about it, but I know for me it will always be a reminder of exactly what magic can do if you just let it go.


    We manage to restock on our supplies out of what the villagers had, paying them for what they give us. Mostly food, and some of the remaining fresh water that they had.


    One thing we do notice however, is that there are clearly some people who don¡¯t want us to do as we plan.


    As its Johns turn to cook, the rest of us were in other parts of the camp getting our stuff together to leave when the first idiot shows up.


    It¡¯s the same jerk off that was leering at us earlier, or I guess that would be leering at the girls. You¡¯d think that, even though we¡¯ve been dealing with this situation for seven years, people would still realize that some women are simply better than they are.


    The guy approaches Jessie first, as she¡¯s taking care gathering some more supplies. She doesn¡¯t immediately notice the guy because she¡¯s also trying to focus on gathering death energy. Yeah, I gave people homework, but I already noticed this guy as he was walking over. I¡¯m just there to make sure she doesn¡¯t kill him in my opinion.


    ¡°Sweetheart,¡± the idiot says, ¡°Why don¡¯t you give this adventuring crap up and come with us? We¡¯ll be going to the city, and I¡¯m sure the Prince will need strong men like myself.¡±


    Now, what I didn¡¯t expect is Jessie laughing at him.


    As she calms down a bit, ¡°Let¡¯s get some things straight, you piece of donkey shit. I am not your sweetheart, and if you call me that again, you might not be leaving here with you manhood. You will address me as Miss Jessie, or Ma¡¯am. And if you think I¡¯m going back to Chicago, when I¡¯m out on a mission already, you¡¯d better get your head checked at one of the Temples in Chicago before you seriously get yourself hurt.¡±


    The guy huffs a bit, and then says, ¡°Yeah right bitch, you just¡­¡± That¡¯s as far as he gets because suddenly Erin is behind him with her short katana like sword at his throat.


    ¡°I suggest you keep on moving, putain d''idiot. We¡¯ve had enough of you today.¡±


    I¡¯m struggling to keep from laughing at this point, because I¡¯m pretty sure Erin just called him a fucking idiot, and the guy looks to have pissed himself.


    ¡°Erin, don¡¯t kill him please. That would give us problems we don¡¯t need yet. If you do have to, at least throw his body in the lake. I don¡¯t think anybody would be surprised if this asshole accidentally walked in, and I imagine the Blood Scarabs might still be around.¡± I know they aren¡¯t but still, it¡¯s the thought that counts.


    He takes off running, I¡¯m sure to complain to someone else in the community before they leave, and I shrug. Jessie looks at me, slightly askance.


    ¡°I was here to make sure you didn¡¯t kill him. That would have been bad, not just for the community relations thing, but with all of you gathering death energy, it¡¯s better if you all start with older deaths. Fresh Death can sometimes be addicting. Apparently that¡¯s how we got several serial killers in the past.¡±


    Jessie and Erin suddenly look more thoughtful, and Erin nods her head at me, ¡°Thanks, wouldn¡¯t want to catch something from that encul¨¦.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡±


    ¡°Encul¨¦? It¡¯s French for fucker.¡±


    *****


    We weren¡¯t bothered for the rest of the night, though the next morning, Paul and a young man, still a boy really, came forward.


    As they do, I get a ¡°call¡± from Anubis. More of a shout really.


    ¡°TAKE HIM WITH YOU!¡±


    I wince, holding a hand to my head. The entire group notices, especially as I mutter, ¡°Tone it down will you? About took my head off.¡±


    Naturally I don¡¯t get a response.


    Paul steps up, ¡°Listen, first I want to apologize.¡± Apparently he either isn¡¯t going to ask about my sudden headache, or he didn¡¯t notice. Either way I¡¯m not going to complain.


    ¡°Richard,¡± he continues, ¡°can live up to his nickname sometimes, and we are grateful that you didn¡¯t kill him or anything. He¡¯s a dick, but he¡¯s at least a good shot with that bow of his.¡±


    John chuckles, ¡°With a name like Richard, he should really be careful of his image. Don¡¯t want everyone calling him Dick now do we?¡±


    That gets a laugh out of all of us, except the kid, who¡¯s just looking slightly rebellious.


    ¡°The other thing I¡¯d like to ask is about Eddy here.¡± He pats the boy on the back.


    ¡°It¡¯s Edward,¡± the boy mumbles.


    ¡°Edward,¡± Paul stresses this time, ¡°Has some kind of magic that no one has seen before. At least not here. And I recall you mentioning that your group is heading towards Indianapolis.¡± He waves his hands about for a moment.


    ¡°I don¡¯t particularly care what you¡¯re doing down that way, especially since you all came along and basically saved our asses. But I do ask that you take him with you. He¡¯s got family down that way, and hopefully someone down there that can take care of him. We¡¯d bring him with us, but well¡­ he¡¯s been to much trouble to too many people here. No one wants to take him. I would, but the missus would kill me.¡±


    I nod. ¡°We¡¯ll take him.¡± I look at the young man in question. He¡¯s at that awkward age. The age where he¡¯s just hit puberty, he¡¯s still growing, and he is clearly trying to figure out what he¡¯s doing with his life.


    Paul steps a little closer, as Jessie and Alyssa pull Edward off to the side, figuring out what he¡¯s bringing with him.


    ¡°The boy¡¯s mom was one of those who died or was captured by the Fish Men. Boy says she was killed, but those Fishmen eat the bodies, so we don¡¯t know exactly what happened. Either way, his grandparents near Indianapolis are the only people I know of that might be able to take care of him.¡±


    I nod, ¡°We¡¯ll at the very least see him there. Might teach him some things along the way as well. We¡¯ve still got another mission in Wheatfield before we head to Indianapolis as well, so you never know what will happen.¡±


    He nods again, offering his hand, ¡°Thank you sir,¡± he says to me as we shake.


    ¡°Nothing for it,¡± I reply, ¡°We¡¯re adventurers.¡±

 Traveling Lesson

    We headed out shortly after that. Edward didn¡¯t have too much stuff with him, fortunately. And after looking at the stuff he did have, John just put all of it inside my bag of holding.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got more space, and we don¡¯t really want to put his stuff in with the girl¡¯s anyway,¡± was the excuse I was given. Not that I really cared, but it was interesting to see how the group was really coming together as a group now.


    ¡°So,¡± I say, looking at our newest member, ¡°What do you know about magic?¡±


    Edward just shrugs his shoulders, ¡°It can do stuff, like what you did to the Lake.¡±


    I sigh, partially because he just clammed up again after that.


    ¡°Well,¡± I say, ¡°Do you know how to meditate? Have you actually cast any spells?¡±


    He frowns thoughtfully, ¡°I¡¯ve heard about meditation, but that was in books that my mom had from before the change. She was a Wiccan.¡±


    I nod, understanding a little bit more now. He probably hadn¡¯t done any meditation because he thought it was only from before the Change then.


    ¡°Meditation is actually fairly important for any person who practices magic,¡± I say, before waving at the rest of the group. ¡°Right now, all of them are practicing a type of meditation, though I imagine theirs is going to be different from what you will do.¡±


    ¡°Now, meditation is a state of mind. It is when a person is able to become aware of the energy around them, and bring it to themselves to harness it. When you cast spells, you use this energy, and running out of it can be bad if you keep trying to cast spells after you¡¯re out.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± he asks me. Suddenly, I¡¯m grateful that my teacher had the patience of a God.


    ¡°Because, if you run out of energy to use your magic, you¡¯ll start using your life energy to do it. And if you run out of life energy, you die,¡± says Jessie, standing a bit behind us. She¡¯s paying attention to the lesson as we walk along.


    The kid pales at her no nonsense answer, and I nod my head, ¡°Everyone falls under that rule. It¡¯s part of why after the change so many people died. They were doing magic without understanding the actual consequences of said magic.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be spells?¡± he asks, looking very confused.


    ¡°No,¡± I reply, ¡°There are two ways to use magic. The first, and simplest way, is to simply use it. Elemental mages are able to control things like fire or water, without a spell. Necromancers, likewise, are able to control blood, or bones, without spells as well.¡±


    ¡°Spells are a bit more unique than that. They are set forms for using magic that are structured and cheaper than just the control or manipulation that a mage can just do with magic. A fire mage for example, needs a spell to create fire, not to control it. When a fire mage casts fireball, he is using a spell that takes advantage of the correct method of influencing the world around him to create a ball of fire and propelling it in a direction. If he chose to manipulate that spell, he can steer the fireball as well.¡±


    Eddy blinks at that. ¡°Why doesn¡¯t everyone do that?¡±


    I smile, remembering when Anubis had this same lesson with me. ¡°Well, that is for two reasons,¡± I bend over a pick up a stick.


    Holding it in front of me, I say, ¡°Picture the stick as the world. Now, also picture that my hand is magic.¡±


    He nods his head, looking at me curiously. I can feel the interest from the others as well, and I smile as this is just too good.


    Then I hit Eddy with the stick.


    ¡°That is a demonstration of someone using magic to manipulate the natural world,¡± I say, to the chuckles of everyone except Eddy, who¡¯s glaring at me slightly.


    Now I break the stick in half. ¡°And this, is me using magic to cast a spell. How do you think it would go if I tried to use both of these to hit you at the same time?¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    He thinks about it, still rubbing the spot on his head that I hit. ¡°It would be harder, because both of them are smaller, and you¡¯re¡­¡± I can actually see when it clicks for him.


    ¡°You¡¯re trying to control both at the same time. Exactly. When you try to manipulate a spell, you have to not only manipulate the natural world, but also the magic of the spell that you just used to change the natural world.¡± I chuckle as I throw the stick away.


    ¡°For now though, focus on meditation. One step at a time.¡± I smile as he nods and goes, ¡°Okay, how do I do that?¡±


    ¡°First, everything in the world has some energy. I¡¯m a necromancer. I use the energy of Death, Blood, and Bones.¡±


    His eyes widen, when I say that.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t think blood scarabs were a regular Water Mage spell did you?¡± I ask.


    He shakes his head, ¡°I figured you were some kind of master or something.¡±


    I chuckle. ¡°No, I¡¯m good with Blood and Bone magic, and a little with Death magic, but I am not a Master in any of them yet. That requires another test. Back to meditation.¡±


    ¡°This will be easier if you close your eyes first, so I suppose now is a good time for a short break. Once you¡¯ve got the hang of this down, we¡¯ll probably move faster.¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯s that,¡± Eddy says, almost before I¡¯m done speaking.


    ¡°Because, meditation helps in a few different ways. One thing it helps is conservation of energy, so with all of us meditating at least partially while we¡¯re walking, we¡¯re actually using less energy then normal.¡±


    We step off to the side of the road for a short break, with John and Alyssa grabbing our canteens and checking the small creek that we¡¯re about to cross. The road here obviously fell a few years ago, probably during a spring flood or something, but thankfully, the water is good.


    ¡°Now, to properly meditate, close your eyes. Count, silently, up to ten, and then back down.¡± I wait, while he does this, and smile as I watch him relax into a beginner¡¯s meditative state.


    ¡°Here¡¯s the tricky part. Feel around using only your mind. Find the energy that you are closest to. Once you do, pull it slowly towards yourself, and set it to floating around you in a circle.¡±


    He nods, and I can actually feel him reaching out with his mind. I¡¯m rather impressed by that. Most new or aspiring mages start with nothing like that, and it takes them a while to reach a point where they are able to have a mental influence that strong.


    But then he starts pulling energy, and I¡¯m slightly concerned. Because the energy he¡¯s pulling is two types that I haven¡¯t heard of anyone except clerics using, and they get theirs from the Gods.


    He¡¯s pulling Light and Dark, in equal measures.


    ¡°Stop, stop!¡± I say quickly. Light and Dark energy are two of the most volatile energies, not because they are inherently dangerous, but because of what they can do.


    He opens his eyes, after he¡¯s fully stopped and says, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    ¡°Nothing, nothing at all with you. It¡¯s you¡¯re affinity that could be a problem.¡± I say, thinking quickly. Then I snap my fingers, of course!


    ¡°While we are traveling, I want you to focus on an energy that¡¯s a bit outside of your affinity. I only want you to pull your affinity energy like you did just now, when we are camped for the night unless I tell you to. Okay?¡±


    The problem is, Light Energy has a habit of attracting monsters. Dark Energy, as normal with opposites, makes monsters afraid. And the reverse is true for undead of course, for who knows what reason, other than the possible, ¡®The Gods said so.¡¯ I don¡¯t put much faith with that one though, because even Anubis wasn¡¯t forthcoming with a reason other than because that¡¯s the way it is. But if he¡¯s pulling in Light Energy for any length of time, he¡¯s going to attract monsters, and we¡¯ve got a ways to go still.


    Thankfully, he nods his head, and I teach him the basics of sensing Death Energy. Which, also somewhat surprising, he takes in just as easily.


    What is this kid?


    *****


    After teaching the basics of Death Magic we move on. We hit the former State Road Two after about another mile and a half of walking. We¡¯d be following that down to De Motte before camping for the night, and finishing up our trip to Wheatfield in the morning.


    De Motte used to be a bit bigger than Wheatfield, but it didn¡¯t recover well in the aftermath of the Change. A rogue Earth Mage decided the town would look much better with rock spikes through everything he didn¡¯t like, and did so until he died.


    I plan on using that as an example for Eddy, because the cause of death for that mage was later determined as overuse of magic. Hopefully it will help him keep that always in mind.


    The road is quiet as we move along, and after about three miles of that, I head forward to talk with John.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like this quiet. Not even the birds are singing, which means there is something out there.¡±


    ¡°Or something,¡± he says, as he points towards some woods that are just ahead of us. And sure enough, there¡¯s smoke coming from them. Black smoke, which means it isn¡¯t just a brush fire, but something more. Black smoke normally comes from oils so, this could be really bad.


    We wave for everyone to stop, and Alyssa steps up with us.


    ¡°I can go investigate. I don¡¯t like this,¡± she says, looking at me.


    I nod, ¡°Go ahead, but be careful. John, let¡¯s take a break here, and wait for her to get back and find out what¡¯s going on. Either you or Erin find a sentry spot and keep an eye out for others.¡±


    We relax for a little while before Alyssa comes back.


    I¡¯ve seen Alyssa mad before. Now she is even more pissed. And, I can tell, more than a little upset over what¡¯s happening over at the source of the smoke.


    ¡°It¡¯s what looks like a large group from the area. They can¡¯t be a regular community, because they¡¯ve shunned the Adventurer¡¯s Guild here. But they¡¯re burning elves up there behind a church. And they¡¯ve got more in cages.¡±


    Fuck.

 Flashback: Alyssas Story Part 1

    My name¡¯s Alyssa McGuire. And I am scared.


    It¡¯s been a week since everything started falling apart. I was at the University of Illinois at Chicago when it started. People doing weird things, like throwing fireballs, or the poor woman who couldn¡¯t stop crying, except when she cried water would start acting weird around her.


    I got out of there as quick as I could. As I left, the city had been put under some form of martial law, but I needed to get out. I had no idea how my family would react to this. And family seems like a good place to start trying to figure it all out.


    Unfortunately for me, while our regular house was in Illinois, my dad spent the summer up in Michigan. Mackinaw Island to be exact. Which is how I ended up running north. I would have taken my car, but none of them were working. My car, my friend¡¯s cars. None of them.


    If it was just mine, I would have taken the time to try and get it fixed. Since it was all of our vehicles, I started walking. I figured it was something to do with all the weirdness.


    I started the trip with a couple of friends. Alex, Mary, and Jeanette. Alex invited his brother Mark to come as well, but Mark wanted to stay and try to figure things out with his girlfriend, Ashley. So we started making our way out of Chicago and into Michigan.


    Alex and Jeanette separated from us in Grand Rapids. Both of them were from there, and had chosen to go to college in Illinois to get away from home. As my dad used to tell me, ¡°Far enough away that it isn¡¯t convenient to visit, close enough that visiting is still possible.¡±


    Mary and I kept going north. Mary was actually Canadian, and her mother lived in Sault St. Marie. We agreed that we¡¯d see my family first, then head up to Sault St. Marie to get her mom and head back south. Figure everything else out after that.


    The only problem was when we got to the Roscommon Forest Area.


    It used to be a pretty nice park. Unfortunately, that was what it used to be. We noticed that as we got closer to the park, strange ice began to show up. It was black, and nasty looking. Sharp, jagged edges all over, and it didn¡¯t act like normal snow or ice. It was fall, but it wasn¡¯t quite cold enough for ice yet, but this stuff didn¡¯t care, it wouldn¡¯t melt and just stayed there.


    We kept moving north, but when we hit the town of Houghton Lake, we knew something was wrong.


    First of all, something had obviously come out of the lake. The waterfront area of the town looked like the aftermath of a Godzilla movie. And all over the place was that black ice.


    We didn¡¯t see anyone around the town, which was our second clue that something was seriously wrong, but we didn¡¯t have the time to stop and look for anyone. We kept moving north.


    But we stayed a bit farther away from any source of water. We didn¡¯t know what was living in them.


    *****


    It took us almost a month to get all the way through the lower peninsula of Michigan. My dad normally went to Mackinac from Mackinaw City. It was an easy trip that I remembered making hundreds of times in my youth.


    But as we approached Mackinaw City we began to see the problems.


    First was the monsters. We had started encountering them after we left Houghton Lake. Most of them were strange wolves that didn¡¯t act like wolves. We figured they were monsters when we saw a couple of them had those strange black ice bits on their backs. Just judging by that, whatever came out of the lake must have been truly monstrous, because these guys only had two to four of the icicles sticking out of their backs, normally making it look like the wolves had some kind of creepy mane.


    Those were the easy ones to kill. I¡¯d hunted before, as had Mary. We found her a gun, an older double barreled shotgun, at a general store in one of the small towns that was deserted on our way north. I had a bow, just a compound one that I picked up at the same store. We had seen the wolves earlier, but they hadn¡¯t attacked us yet.


    Once we were armed it wasn¡¯t long after that the wolves attacked.


    However, the monsters that would sometimes be with the wolves were more terrifying. Goblins. My little brother had always been more interested in videogames than hunting and such, much to my parent¡¯s dismay. However, I remember from watching him play one of his games that goblins were a weak monster that people normally fought in the lower levels.


    Except now they were here, working with twisted ice wolves to try and kill us.


    And then there was the Thing. We hadn¡¯t seen it yet, just the aftermath of what it had done. We stumbled across an entire family that had been impaled by meter long ice spikes, and the entire area they were at had the same. One of them, probably the dad from what we could tell of the aftermath, had served as somethings lunch.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Neither of us felt like eating after that. That was in Trowbridge, almost forty miles away from where we were going.


    *****


    After that we decided to pick up more supplies. Traps, ammunition, everything we could carry that wouldn¡¯t slow us down. I ended up having almost sixty arrows between three quivers. Still wasn¡¯t sure it would help us if we ran into the Thing.


    We kept moving though. Straight up through Indian River. That was another town that had clearly seen better days, though we did find some survivors. They were hiding in what used to be the Police Station. It was barricaded fairly heavily, and had more of those meter long ice spikes all over it, like the Thing had attacked and decided it wasn¡¯t worth it.


    That¡¯s where we found out what the Thing was.


    We met with the local Police chief. He wasn¡¯t surprised that the entire world seemed to have gone crazy. He was a little surprised that we had walked all the way from Chicago. But it was his son that surprised us, running in saying, ¡°Dad, I figured it out! That monster was almost straight from dungeons and dragons!¡±


    He¡¯s holding a book that says on its cover ¡®Monster Manual¡¯. I knew of D&D, but hadn¡¯t ever really played, nor had the desire to. But he opens the book up to a page, and there is this creature portrayed on it.


    ¡°See,¡± he tells his father, ¡°The only difference is the one that attacked us was all blue, and had ice instead of just normal spikes. But it¡¯s a Manticore!¡±


    The police chief nods his head, sighing a bit, ¡°What does the book say about the creatures?¡±


    ¡°Hmmm,¡± the kid says, clearly thrilled to have figured out the mystery, ¡°Well, they¡¯re pack animals. They normally travel in some kind of pack. The monster manual says they are Evil Predators. They are sort of smart, they can talk and stuff. But according to this, they aren¡¯t that smart. More minion than anything. Since the one that attacked us didn¡¯t say anything, I imagine that it might not know our language yet, or something. It also didn¡¯t fly, though it had those wings. Maybe it evolved from something in the area?¡±


    I look at Mary. ¡°It may have evolved from something, but it would have been a lion or something in that case. And I think there is something even bigger that it might be working for. Houghton is gone, something came out of the lake down there and wiped out the town.¡±


    The police chiefs face pales as I tell him that.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to have to evacuate.¡±


    We stayed for another night, as the survivors that were here gathered what they could. They would be heading south, while we continued on our way North.


    Now that we knew the Thing was a Manticore, we doubled our speed. We weren¡¯t sure if it was actually capable of flight yet, but we had to reach Mackinaw City as fast as possible.


    Unfortunately for us, we wouldn¡¯t get there in one piece.


    *****


    It was a rest area that was labeled the Hebron I-75 South Bound Rest area. We had stopped for the night, barricading ourselves in the female restroom. Was the safest bet for us, and we had already smashed open the vending machines to get some additional food to go with the rabbits I had snared earlier in the evening.


    That¡¯s when we heard it.


    ¡°Come out, come out, come out little birdies.¡± A cold, sinister voice seemed to whisper through the wind. We looked at each other quickly, and then grabbed our weapons. I had set up some other traps in our area, including a couple of bear traps that I could only hope the Thing would step in.


    ¡°Just come out and join me for my dinner. It won¡¯t hurt. Much,¡± the bastard chuckles. I can see him now. He¡¯s got the face of a man, the body of a lion, and a strange scorpion like tail, except it has a bunch of icicles growing out of it instead of the normal stinger.


    He¡¯s also got a pair of wings that are simple massive.


    I put an arrow on my string, and fire it directly at his throat. Unfortunately, he uses his tail to swipe it out of the air.


    But fortunately, Mary chose that exact moment to fire with her gun. The shotgun slug rips into the tail, as the beast roars in pain. Both of us quickly duck back down behind the counter we¡¯re using for cover.


    ¡°Little birds, you will regret that!¡± he continues to roar, before suddenly there are ice spikes all around us. None of them hit me, and I put another arrow to my string, before standing and firing it at his face.


    I duck back down, and carefully peek over the counter. Then I smile. My arrow got lodged in his throat. It¡¯s clearly not enough to kill him, but it is awkward enough that he can¡¯t speak now. He glares at the counter we¡¯re hiding behind, and tries to charge.


    Thankfully, he¡¯s a big bastard, and the area we¡¯re in is pretty small. Also, he¡¯s clearly not strong enough to actually destroy the building with a single slam like that.


    I notch another arrow to my string, and shoot him in the face again. He¡¯s really mad now, and when he steps back a little more, he isn¡¯t paying attention.


    With a snap, the bear trap that was behind him shuts on his hind paw. I think I hear an additional snap, the sound of breaking bones, but I can¡¯t be sure. The monster starts flailing around, launching spikes of ice in every direction. I lay flat against the ground, to hopefully avoid the spikes, when I look over at Mary.


    And realize why I never heard her fire a second shot. She has one of the meter long ice spikes through her chest. I gasp, in shock and horror. Her eyes are already glassy, and she is slumped over, almost looking like she¡¯s just sleeping.


    At that moment, my anger reaches out and grabs a hold of me. This bastard just killed my friend. I want to make him just as dead.


    I pry the gun out of Mary¡¯s fingers, quickly reloading it with the two shells that she had been trying to load when the spike hit her. I¡¯ve used guns before, though I normally stick with the bow. The beast is done flailing about, as I stand up and walk out from behind the counter. At this point, I don¡¯t care if it kills me, as long as I¡¯m able to kill it as well.


    He looks at me and says, ¡°Human, free me from your accursed trap and I will serve you. Just free me first!¡±


    I glare at him, as I put the gun to his head. He looks at me with disbelief. And then I pull the trigger.


    *****


    I take three days to bury Mary¡¯s body and mourn. I burn the corpse of the Manticore, taking all the lighter fluid and dry brush I could find in the area to serve as kindling. And then I continue on my way North. Without Mary, I won¡¯t go to Sault St. Marie. I didn¡¯t know her family, and I have no idea on how to find them either.


    The rest of the walk up to Mackinaw City is uneventful. Nothing attacks me, and I just walk along the highway until I see the city, and the bridge.


    Then I pause in horror as I notice that the bridge is destroyed. Something ripped straight through it. I look over, to where I could normally see in the distance, Mackinac Island.


    But it is gone as well.

 Jail Break

    We come up with a plan. There is a former town here, and from the size of the group that is burning and torturing the elves, about sixty or seventy, I imagine they¡¯ve been here for a while. Probably one of the back country reclusive groups that turtled when the Change hit. Probably also killed all of the mages and monsters that have come into their area, which to them would include elves, dwarves, and anything else that they don¡¯t consider human.


    Which would also include us if we get caught.


    From Alyssa¡¯s description, the group probably had some Amish in the area, as the majority are dressed in a similar fashion. She could tell who the group¡¯s enforcers were because they had actual guns, while the rest of the group had pitchforks, and other things.


    Bigots with guns, just what we need. I¡¯m so thrilled to be taking care of this right now.


    The remaining fourteen elves are all being kept in three cages, separating them. The cages are made from what looks like old car parts and barbed wire fencing, giving a once good looking church an apocalyptic feel. The elves have three elderly elves in one cage, which is fairly impressive, what looks like a small family of four in another cage, and the other seven, three males and four females, in the last.


    According to Alyssa, there are three stakes set up behind the church that are the source of the smoke. The elves that were on them are already gone.


    That is what really sets me off, and I fully consider going full out to wipe this group of evil bigots of the face of the world. That is, until I look at my group. Six of us right now, one of that in training. I can¡¯t risk them like that.


    So the only option I can think of is for us to run.


    *****


    We get our plan set. Wait for dark, take out the guards, and open the cages, getting the elves out. Start with the elders, because they¡¯ll be the most help. Elder elves are normally impressive spell casters, as an elf only starts to look old once they¡¯re something like eight hundred years old.


    Once all of them are out, our plan is to go through the night, cross country to Wheatfield. Wheatfield has an adventurer¡¯s guild house that we can stay at, and house the elves there until we can figure out more.


    And anyone that gets in our way? We deal with them, no mercy. When I announced that, all I got in response was a fierce look of approval from everyone.


    *****


    Night finally falls. The area behind the church grounds is decently wooded, and we¡¯re able to get fairly close without anyone seeing us.


    The cages are still being guarded, three men with pitchforks patrolling the area around the cages, and one with a gun at what appears to be a makeshift guard post. They aren¡¯t being truly watchful, so I decide to send Oro and Argento to distract the three guys while the rest of us sneak up towards the one with the gun.


    That sort of works. Oro and Argento start barking over on the other side of the building, being our distraction. But instead of getting the three with pitchforks, they get all four of the guards walking towards the dogs.


    It works for us, as Alyssa stalks up toward the men with John and Erin close behind. Jessie and I approach the cages, signaling for the elves to be quiet as we start using a bone that I prepped for a situation exactly like this one.


    Granted, I thought it would be me needing it to get myself out of a cage, but it works.


    The spell on the bone is an old favorite, Acid Blood. I pull out one of my knives and cut my palm open to bleed on the lock of the cage. I hand the knuckle bone to Jessie and whisper, ¡°Wait till I¡¯m at the next cage, then activate the spell. It¡¯ll melt the lock and then you can get these guys out.¡±


    The three old elves are looking at me with slight apprehension. I don¡¯t think they¡¯ve ever seen a necromancer using his magic to help others before. Always good to break standard thoughts on controversial matters. But then I look at their wrists, and ankles. The scum that kept them in here obviously cared about basic decency, as they still have basic clothes. But I don¡¯t know where these guys came from or how they got here. Biggest reason for that is the scarred flesh from the iron cuffs chaffing around both wrists and ankles.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    I thought I was pissed before, but I¡¯m starting to see red.


    I move to the next cage, and prep the lock and the spell, focusing on getting them out rather than the other option. I tell myself that it¡¯s more important to get the people that are still alive out, rather than going on a rampage through this shithole of a town.


    As I finish up on the last one, I step outside of the range of the spells, and signal Jessie to trigger the spell. It quickly burns through, and I hear the pops as the locks fall to the ground. The elders come over to me after they¡¯ve been freed, bowing to me respectfully.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± one whispers, ¡°You have given us back our lives. How can we help you?¡±


    I smile then, and some of the younger elves flinch.


    ¡°Help me, help you. Do you want revenge?¡±


    The worrying part is, after I say that last word, all the elves are grinning back to me.


    *****


    Once the elders are outside of the cages, it¡¯s a matter of minutes before they have enough energy to heal themselves, and the other elves. The elves practice a weird type of magic that they call ¡°Life¡± Magic. I call it necromancy while a person is still breathing. I sort of get the sense that we both creep the other out.


    We rejoin the others, and I see how they took out the guards. Oro, and Argento both took out a guard each, with one having his arm completely separated from the rest of him, and the other having his throat ripped into a bloody mess.


    The guard who had the gun took an arrow to the back of the head. Not exactly good for the arrow, but it clearly worked as he¡¯s dead. The last guard had his head cut off, and I¡¯m not sure if it was John or Erin .


    However it looks like fresh parts to put into my bone bag to me.


    While I harvest knuckles, and some of the longer bones for conversion to bone weapons, we all go over the plan and start to make a new one. With the elves wanting a little revenge too, we make our decision.


    Then we get our first surprise. Centaurs. Our first clue that they were here is when we heard the sound of horse hooves hitting the earth. A LOT of horse hooves. The elders look at each other and instantly say, ¡°Chirios!¡±


    ¡°Chirios? Who¡¯s Chirios?¡± I ask, a little concerned. One of the elders grins at me apologetically.


    ¡°Chirios is the leader of the local Centaur herd. He came to this area looking to get away from some of the Great Herds that are further west in that wide plain region. The elves and the centaurs have been long time allies, and if Chirios knew that we were being held captive, he would stop at nothing to get us back.¡±


    I nod my head. ¡°Well, in that case we¡¯ll just have to try and get you to him safe and sound.¡± I look around, before calling John over to talk about defenses.


    *****


    With the scrapping of our first plan, we quickly set up defenses for the building we are in. It clearly used to be a church. However after we searched the rooms for supplies to use it became clear that this was the town¡¯s gathering point. A lot of the old church symbols were taken down and put away, while everywhere there is spare food and supplies. My guess is that after the Change, people ended up using this as a place to get together. It ended up becoming everything the town needed at the time. A marketplace, a spot to gather and learn what everyone was doing and how they were, et cetera.


    What it means right now is that we are the anvil to the centaurs hammer on this town. Not exactly something that sits well with most of us, but we don¡¯t have much of a choice.


    That is, until the women and children of the town start to approach. We have locked and barricaded every entrance except one. That last one, while heavily trapped, is still open to allow us a way to retreat without having the people here completely surround us. John was the one who came up with that tactic.


    ¡°People,¡± he told me, ¡°are like water. Nine times out of ten, they will take the path of least perceived resistance. In our case, that means once they find that all of the doors are locked, they are going to come around and look for one that isn¡¯t. Which is where all of us will be.¡±


    I kind of wish he wasn¡¯t absolutely right. I normally don¡¯t feel much for people, but I can¡¯t know who is out there. I don¡¯t know who is actually innocent or guilty which is enough to bug me.


    The first woman runs up to the open doors, with a baby in her arms. She¡¯s covered in ash and dirt, so I figure she must have run from the far side of town. She¡¯s holding a baby in her arms, and I can hear the cries, even from the window I am next to.


    Oro gets to her first, and I can feel the anger and frustration passing between us on our link. Neither of us like what we are doing. So I decide to change the game.


    ¡°Give the dog your child. They will not be harmed,¡± I shout at her in my best intimidating voice.


    She screams as she hears me, throwing her hands, and the baby, into the air. Thankfully one of the elves must have caught on to what I was saying, because they ¨C in an impressive display of acrobatics ¨C jump up, and catch the child, before landing back on the ground. The elves are all mostly in fox holes around the entrance, as we didn¡¯t have enough ranged weapons for them to use. At least, enough ranged weapons they would use.


    But it works, as they were there to catch the child. They glance at the woman, who is now running off into the woods screaming. I shout out, ¡°Give everyone that chance. Children aren¡¯t responsible for what happened here. The adults of this community are. If we can, save the children.¡±


    Now all I can do is hope.

 Meetings

    The next morning smoke, and fog blanketed the area. Through the course of the night we had only two groups approach us, one of which the adults sent the children to us. They stayed outside of the trapped area, and just knelt and prayed. They look Amish or Mennonite, but I know, that I am not the one to be judging them.


    John walks up, and hands me a cup of tea. One of the few luxuries that we discovered here. Granted the tea bags were old, but the tea in the end was still good. I¡¯ve been up all night, just watching. I know that this is my responsibility. I¡¯m the one that freed the elves, and I¡¯m proud of that. I know I didn¡¯t invite the centaurs to attack the town.


    But I also know that if we hadn¡¯t been here, if I hadn¡¯t scared that first woman, a lot more people might have lived through this night. I don¡¯t like how that makes me feel, where one decision made in anger is probably what killed a lot of people. Even if those people were scum, they didn¡¯t have a trial, to determine their guilt.


    I pull myself back to the present, and see what¡¯s going on. I see John looking at me with a strange look on his face.


    ¡°You okay Daniel,¡± he asks.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± I reply, ¡°Just a long night. And I feel responsible.¡±


    He nods, ¡°Give it a few days before you try to think about all of this. I had to the first time I killed something,¡± he holds up his hands, ¡°I know it isn¡¯t your first time killing. But sitting here watching a battle happen all night? Just by the fact you didn¡¯t sleep, I know you haven¡¯t seen that before.¡±


    I nod. It¡¯s true, I¡¯ve never seen a battle happen right in front of me like this before. Even if this was just a small battle, I¡¯ve still never seen anything like it.


    He pats me on the shoulder before saying, ¡°Let¡¯s go get the elders. I imagine that this Chirios will be coming here soon as the fog, and smoke clears a bit. Better to be ready for what comes next.¡±


    *****


    The elders had stayed inside all night with the youngest of the elves. When John and I walked up to the area they had been resting in, they smiled at us and stood.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± one of the elders says, ¡°If you hadn¡¯t come we all would have been killed.¡±


    We both nod and John speaks up, ¡°Elders, we need to talk about how the negotiations are going to occur. Chirios should be coming over to us, later this morning. We expect by the time the fog lifts the centaurs will be coming here, and looking for you.¡±


    The elder nods. ¡°I am Astarrion. Chirios is my friend, and it was because of me that we had come to this region. We are the vanguard for a larger group of families looking to colonize the forests of the region you call Michigan.¡±


    Suddenly things click into place for me. I had run into elves previously, a smaller group that said they were scouting the area. They never told me why they were scouting the area, but clearly this is the reason.


    ¡°You came over to far west then,¡± I say, ¡°Your scouts wouldn¡¯t have missed this community on their original trek north if they were creating the path for you to follow.¡±


    Astarrion nods, ¡°Indeed. You must have met with one of the scout groups. However, there was a change. The scout groups went north and passed close to the city you call Indianapolis. We were unable to, as the Undead have taken the city. According to what I could discover through using my magic, as well as Elder Cestrion using his, a Lich was born in the city. He had started by preying on the weaker members of the community as a Necromancer, and once he fully turned he made his move to take over the city.¡±


    John and I glanced at each other. I had shared my thoughts on Indianapolis with the others, but this is the first confirmation that we had on the state of the city. Needless to say, it wasn¡¯t good.


    ¡°Thank you Astarrion,¡± John says, filling in for my silence as I think, ¡°Our adventuring group is actually on its way to deal with Indianapolis, and once we have finished we¡¯ll be informing the adventurer¡¯s guild of what happened. On that note, would you be willing to come with us to Wheatfield? It¡¯s a human settlement about a day¡¯s journey from here. I¡¯ll be asking the centaur leader the same thing, but as you are planning on being neighbors to Chicago, at least meeting with the adventurer¡¯s guild there won¡¯t hurt.¡±


    He considers it for a minute, before nodding his head. ¡°We¡¯ll of course need to talk about it between ourselves, however I don¡¯t see any problems with that. You and your group has conducted itself with honor. At the very least we will want to see about working with your Adventurer¡¯s Guild.¡±


    With that taken care of, John and Astarrion start discussing what to say to Chirios. I mostly tune out of that conversation, as I¡¯m caught up in thinking about how we are going to shut down an entire city of undead.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    *****


    The five of us gather at the entrance to the church¡¯s parking lot. The other elves have emerged from the foxholes, and the Mennonite families came forward to us first.


    The other group that had come to the church last night had tried to force their way in. The elves, Erin, and Alyssa had made them pay severely before they even got to the parking lot. Granted the group was only about fifteen people, with seven kids, but the seven kids, had ended up staying as the only remaining members of the fifteen were reduced to six rather quickly between arrows, shurikens, and the ferocity of the previously tortured elves.


    The Mennonite families, of which there were three as far as I could tell, had come to the church about an hour after that. Everyone else was avoiding us by that point, choosing to go other directions. With the Mennonite¡¯s kneeling or sitting next to the entrance to the parking lot, and the previous display of violence, those who were still escaping from the town all chose to avoid us, as it wasn¡¯t worth it.


    One of the older Mennonite men walked forward and stayed about ten feet away from us. ¡°First, I would like to apologize for our families. I am Elder Simon, and our three families are the Mennonites that lived in this area before the Apocalypse came.¡±


    I look at Astarrion, and say, ¡°Astarrion, why don¡¯t you take care of this? This community brought the most harm to you and your kin.¡± He looks at me and then nods.


    He steps forward and asks, ¡°Why did you not stop these people from capturing us? Or any others.¡±


    The other elder sighs. ¡°You are the second group that the mayor had managed to capture, the other group being a group of goblins. We weren¡¯t in the town that day he captured the goblins, but when we heard of what the mayor did we were horrified. We are by nature pacifists and farmers. So the only choice we had was to start packing up and getting ready to leave this town. We have been packed for a week just waiting for a good chance to run.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, Mayor Drew has been having some of the other men who support him watching us, making sure we didn¡¯t have a chance to run. Our families control most of the livestock in the town, as well as produced most of the crops that he would take to trade for supplies from Wheatfield. If we left, he would have lost most of his economic advantage in the town. And then they caught you.¡±


    ¡°We weren¡¯t entirely sure what to do, but when the horse-men attacked the town, we thought to come this way and see about freeing you and taking you to Wheatfield if we could manage that.¡±


    Astarrion looks at Elder Simon and then nods. ¡°I don¡¯t remember seeing anyone dressed like you when my children, and grandchildren were burned. I see no reason to hold a grudge against your people for the actions of others, especially when you were willing to risk the wrath of others to free us. I¡¯m a little confused as to how you believe you can remain pacifists with the world how it is, but I do not fault you for that.¡±


    Elder Simon smiles, ¡°We can be pacifists as we don¡¯t war or try to harm other people. We still slaughter animals for meat, and we¡¯ll defend ourselves against beasts. But that is much different to what the mayor was doing, and because we weren¡¯t able to do anything for you like the Christians we are, especially since this all occurred in a church or on church property, we all feel even more guilty.¡±


    As he finished, one of the adult elves that was in a foxhole all night points towards the town. Sure enough, a group of about twenty centaurs is trotting out toward us now.


    Looks like more important negotiations are about to take place. I nod to Elder Simon, ¡°Have your families move over to the parking lot. The elves will show you where to walk so that you don¡¯t set off any traps. We haven¡¯t deactivated those yet.¡±


    *****


    The centaur in front is simply huge. He must be at least twice as big as the next largest one, and considering that one looks to be about as big as a Clydesdale? Whoa.


    ¡°My name is Chirios of the Redmane Herd!¡± He shouts while still twenty or thirty feet away. His entire group stops behind him as he takes a few more steps forward.


    ¡°I am seeking Astarrion of the Elves. He is a personal friend and ally of the Centaur Race. Release him so he may speak!¡±


    John and I look at Astarrion and he nods to us. ¡°Centaurs have a bit of a weird idea about negotiations, give me a minute and they¡¯ll calm down.¡±


    ¡°Chirios!¡± Astarrion shouts back, ¡°I am free as are my kin!¡± he steps forward while continuing, ¡°I hope that you at least chose to bathe before this, as your people never smell good to begin with, but it gets worse if there is blood in your hair!¡±


    Both John and I look at Astarrion again, waiting to see if he¡¯s joking or not. Neither of us can tell, as Astarrion has a very serious look on his face, as he shouted.


    ¡°Hahaha,¡± Chirios shouts back, ¡°I would ask if you needed any help, but after the fight we had I¡¯m curious of who had to come save you! I know you didn¡¯t fight your own way out, as you and your people have arms like twigs. I think it comes from spending too much time in trees!¡±


    Clearly, this is some kind of ritual for the centaurs, and if we had tried to step forward to speak something bad probably would have happened. As Astarrion meets Chirios in the middle of our two groups, they exchange more personal greetings, and Chirios¡¯ face turns slightly grim. He motions to his people, and they all come over to our group.


    As Chirios and Astarrion get back to us, Chirios says, ¡°Thank you all for saving my friend and his family. We only discovered what had happened a few days ago when our scout returned with the news. We hurried over, and were worried that we would not be able to save our friends.¡±


    I look at John and he sighs but nods, ¡°It was no trouble. We are an adventuring party out of Chicago on our way to Wheatfield and then to Indianapolis. When we discovered what was going on we made the plan to save the elves. Once we saw what was going on though, we made the decision to hole up and wait for the morning here. The only people who lived in the town that are here are all children. We plan to take them to either Wheatfield or possibly leave them here with Elder Simon of the Mennonite faith.¡±


    John has a bit of a talent for dealing with people I¡¯ve noticed. He¡¯s pretty good at getting them willing to talk at least. Probably why I¡¯ve started just letting him talk to everyone instead of trying to do it myself. I can do lectures on what I know, but talking to people? Not me.


    Chirios seems pretty pleased with that though. ¡°This Elder Simon,¡± he says, ¡°Astarrion says that this man is a pacifist? Interesting. I¡¯ve met other Mennonites of this world before, and found them to be honest hard working folk. Maybe out of this tragedy, more good may happen.¡±