Ch093-Reaping Rewards (Patreon)

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Ch093-Reaping Rewards

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Sylver had to respect it.

It was creative, simple, and effective.

Even if it did fuck him over, and ruined his plan, he couldn’t help but respect something so brilliant.

They figured out that the shades couldn’t handle pure positive energy, and in mere seconds figured out a way to alter one of their healing spells to fill the area up with ambient positive energy. One mage was healing a dead body, while the other somehow tore open the healing spell’s framework and caused it to leak pure positive energy.

There were only 2 mages left inside the cave. There were more initially, but in the 2 minutes, Sylver’s shades had free rein about 30 people were killed. With the torches being snuffed out, the band of rebels were left in complete and total darkness, with creatures that spent their entire lives in darkness attacking them and biting at their ankles.

It would have been wrong to call what happened during those two minutes a fight, even a massacre felt too soft of a word for it. Sylver gained 3 whole levels from it and was currently sitting at a very concerning total level of 99.

Total Level: 99
[Koschei-5]
[Necromancer-94]

CON: 100
DEX: 100
STR: 41
INT: 150
WIS: 100
AP: 35

Health: 1,000/1,000
Stamina: 500/500
MP: 2,155/2,250

Health Regen: 11.67/M
Stamina Regen: 7.5/M
MP Regen: 281.25/M

Concerning because Sylver didn’t like that Bruno couldn’t tell him what would happen once he hit level 100. It was the same thing with Lion, a soft as a feather sound would appear out of nowhere and make whatever Bruno or Faust was trying to say sound like gibberish. Bruno even got a nosebleed and a migraine trying to write it down.

The system seemed to be determined to make sure someone below level 100 never learned what would happen once they reached a total level of 100. Which worried Sylver, because he felt like it was a big deal, and he was right on the verge of crossing it. What if it made him stop what he was doing in the middle of the fight to make a decision?

What if it knocked him out?

The amount of what if’s surrounding it were mind-boggling and extremely worrisome. Down to the point, Sylver genuinely considered sending the shades out to kill monsters until he reached level 100 while in a safe hiding spot.

But on the other hand, the rebels were making headway. Lorn had a hard time judging how thick the ice was but doubted it would take them more than a couple of hours to break their way through it.

Their weapons would be blunted and they would be exhausted, but they would get out eventually. Sylver guessed that there were people in there that couldn’t teleport out, so the ones that could were staying inside and waiting for them.

Or maybe the rebels just didn’t want to leave anyone behind. Or maybe they knew they couldn’t handle Sylver if they fought alone, so they wanted to get everyone out to outnumber and overpower him.

The reason didn’t particularly matter, it all boiled down to the fact that Sylver had an unknown amount of time to handle them. The secret exit had collapsed in on itself and no one seemed to be interested in trying to dig their way out.

Which left only the gigantic wall of hard as treated steel ice.

Or the third option that Sylver was currently in the process of exploring.

One unbelievably useful part of [Dead Dominion] was that there wasn’t any pushback whenever Sylver moved dead matter around. Or at the very least Sylver could pick and choose when there was. And while it looked incredibly stupid, it meant that Sylver could ride on Will and could have a giant sphere of corpses floating all around the wyvern, without adding any extra weight onto him.

Hypothetically speaking he could get a bunch of small boats, cover them in liquid gore, and then carry as much weight as his soul could handle in the boats. Dexterity wasn’t an issue, Sylver might not have used this ability a whole lot back when he was a lich, but the training he undertook to cast magic with his soul provided him with everything he could need to utilize this ability to its maximum potential.

The only limiting factor was range and strength.

The range would be solved as Sylver increased his wisdom, while the strength was a problem for the future. There were ways to force a soul to grow, but it wasn’t worth the risk at the moment. Sylver needed someone significantly more powerful than himself to perform the ritual, but the people that he trusted with his life were relatively weak.

Lola might have been capable of doing it.

If not for her abilities not being up to par, and her distaste for all kinds of dark magic. Save of course for the dark magic that Sylver used to bring her back into the world, but that was something they never talked about. Not that she ever said anything outright, but Sylver had been around her long enough to tell when she was suppressing a grimace of disapproval.

Sylver walked up to the edge of the hole and looked down into it. The rushing water below should have filled the area with a deafening roar, but some odd quirk of the shape or the material had muted it to just barely louder than a trickle.

“I’m ready if you are. I’m not a geology expert, so it’s an educated guess that this will work. Although absolute worst case scenario we just use twice as many bombs as initially planned. It’s not solid rock on the left side, so if you’re stuck you can just dig your way out and then dig upwards,” Spring said, as Sylver walked into the hole and stood on an invisible platform directly above it.

“Did I ever tell you that I’m claustrophobic?” Sylver asked in a mumble as his night vision kicked in and he saw the sharp rocks covered in foam down below.

“Is it really an irrational fear when being buried alive is one of the few things you genuinely need to be wary of? Or buried undead in your case,” Spring asked, as Sylver just stood above the giant gaping hole and didn’t take his eyes off it.

“There’s also [Xander’s Waystone] for precisely situations such as this. Although I really should have tested it out first. Will it still work if my body is in pieces and being crushed by the sheer weight and force of the water pressing me down against a rock?” Sylver asked with a faint chuckle that even Spring barely noticed.

“We could go back to the wall of ice. Wait them out, even with the difference in levels, it shouldn’t be that hard to take them all on,” Spring offered. Sylver shook his head as he walked back onto solid ground and rubbed his hands together.

“You’re seriously underestimating how big of a role the element of surprise played in our fights. This isn’t a well-organized militia like Bonny’s was, but they’re not stupid. I’m a long-range fighter, I send my summons to fight for me, the best way to deal with me is to occupy the summons and get in close enough to kill me in one hit. The umbrella has a limited range, so if they just attack me with a pincer, I’m more or less fucked. Sure I could fight off a warrior, maybe two, but even with all the floating daggers I have blind spots you’ll be too busy to cover. This doesn’t work if they’re prepared and have a plan,” Sylver explained.

Bright yellow sparks sprinkled down onto the rocky ground as Sylver continued to rub his hands together, and slowly allowed pitch-black darkness to escape from the sleeves of his robe. The darkness was just about to start spreading out on the armored-up corpses when Spring coughed into his fist and interrupted.

“You sure you don’t want to assign your attribute points and choose a perk first?” Spring said. Sylver closed his hands and the yellow-edged darkness dissolved into thin air.

“I got sidetracked, thanks…” Sylver said as he looked at his status.

CON: 100
DEX: 100
STR: 41
INT: 150
WIS: 100
AP: 35

If I put all 35 points into intelligence, I’ll get about 500 more MP from it…If I follow the plan and put it into strength, I’ll be able to wear a few extra pieces of [Coat Of Carrion] and my body will be able to handle more speed and strength enhancements.

But on the other hand, this close to getting to level 100, having intelligence be an outlier could be a good thing. From the way Bruno talked about it, the system liked it when people specialized.

Plus, more intelligence means more mana to heal the shades, and it might be enough to start using 2nd tier spells in a fight. Not to mention-

“You’re trying to convince yourself that you should just put all your points into intelligence to get more mana, aren’t you?” Spring said, with his arms crossed over his chest.

“You make it sound like there’s a right answer to this. With my unique class who the fuck knows what matters and what doesn’t?” Sylver reasoned, as Spring just looked at him with a calm and blank look on his face.

“Hypothetically, let’s say I place all 35 points into strength. That gives me a total of 76. I can run faster, I can jump higher, I can hit harder, my body can handle more strain, and by the end of the day I only need a few more levels until all of my attributes are at 100,” Sylver explained.

“Yes. Like you planned since the start, you need a solid base from which to grow,” Spring said with the kind of tone normally reserved for small children. Very few people knew Sylver well enough to speak to him in such a way.

“See, I do understand that you’re saying this because you want me to be strong enough to handle anything that comes my way, in those rare times where you’re preoccupied or just disadvantaged. But on the other hand, I’m a mage, not a warrior. Here’s what I’m thinking… Both my classes gave me extra points towards intelligence and wisdom. Neither gave a shit about my strength or dexterity,” Sylver said, as he felt around with his soul but couldn’t feel Lorn anywhere nearby.

“I actually forgot about that…” Spring said.

“With just that alone, shouldn’t I invest more into my intelligence and wisdom? I’m fighting hand to hand because of my piss poor conductivity, and because I don’t know any good long-range spells that I can use at the moment. With [Dead Dominion] and [Coat Of Carrion] I’m more or less set on close combat,” Sylver reasoned.

“As long as you have a dead body or two,” Spring added.

“Which I will always have thanks to [Bound Bones]. Also… What does it matter if I’m physically weak? Strength only matters in the physical sense. With the you know what inside of me, I have absolutely nothing to fear from a sword or a dagger. The only problem is if it’s enchanted, in which case more mana will give me more room and more options to deal with whatever magic is being used,” Sylver reasoned, as Spring’s eyes opened up ever so slightly.

“That’s… Actually a fair point. But don’t pretend you hadn’t made up your mind the moment I opened my mouth anyway,” Spring said causally.

“I did, but I genuinely do appreciate hearing a second opinion. But at the end of the day, when was the last time I actually locked blades with anyone?” Sylver asked.

“A couple of hours ago with that copper knight?” Spring reminded.

“True, but if I could have just shot her in the face with an Abyssal Pillar I wouldn’t have needed to do that. Also… I think I’m not that far away from being able to use a really low-level 3rd tier spell,” Sylver said, adding the last part under his breath.

“How not far away?” Spring asked, trying to hide his excitement.

“Like a quarter of the way there? My conductivity is still an issue, but I have a plan for that. In the meantime, all the shades and zombies will be stronger, my range with [Shadow’s Agent] will increase, and it will open the door to a few minor rituals that might come in handy. The increase in strength would be useful but not as useful as getting more mana,” Sylver explained.

He could both see and feel Spring being slightly torn between sticking to the plan, and playing it by ear as Sylver was about to do.

“Like always, you seem to know what you’re doing,” Spring offered with a slightly defeated sigh.

It was easy to forget that Spring was a warrior, technically speaking. He was speed-based, sure, but his strength was important to him.

While Sylver thought it over, he checked what perks he had to choose from. It was more the same until he got to the very last one.

His eyes lit up as it looked too good to be true.

[Perk: Reaper’s Reward]
-Increase MP by 100%.
-Increase MP Regeneration by 50%.

What made it all the more suspicious was that Sylver couldn’t tell what the requirements were. Going by the name the assumption would be that it was due to killing over a certain number of people…

It’s another bribe, isn’t it? I’m playing along, keeping my mouth shut, not thinking about it too much…

Sylver read through the other available perks, but they came with conditions that he wouldn’t even consider, or so small and weak that they were pointless. Most of them were the same perks that he’d gotten when he crossed level 80.

Or am I finally getting the same perks every other mage seems to get when they pass level 10?

It could be that it’s a gift? And I’ll have to pay a price for it later? Hidden conditions?

Sylver’s face gradually changed into a sneer as he tried to get a feel for whatever angle the system was playing with him.

What if it’s the other way round? That this is normal, and what I’ve gotten before was unnaturally bad?

Sylver decided to do something useful while he thought it over and started working on the first zombie.

*

*

*

[Zombie (Common) Raised!]

[Raise Zombie (III) Proficiency increased to 73%!]

“So?” Spring asked, as the last zombie stood up from the floor and got into line.

“I’m thinking,” Sylver repeated. Lorn had informed him that the rebels were taking a break from hacking away at the unbelievably hard ice.

“Go with your gut. It seems things mostly work out for you when you do,” Spring offered.

“But what if-”

“No what if’s, we’re running out of time, 3, 2, 1 are you taking the perk or not?” Spring asked, as he clapped his hands in front of Sylver’s face and snapped him out of his trance.

“I’ll take it,” Sylver answered barely two heartbeats later. He checked with his gut one last time and didn’t feel like he was about to vomit.

He accepted the perk and dumped 35 points into intelligence before he could start trying to find an angle where there didn’t seem to be one.

If the system wanted to fuck with him, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do about it at the moment.

But once he got powerful enough, there wasn’t going to be a whole lot the system could do about him.

[Perk: Reaper’s Reward]
-Increase MP by 100%.
-Increase MP Regeneration by 50%.

Sylver stood perfectly still as he felt every nerve in his body flare with feeling, and then scream mutely as Sylver quickly flipped the switch on his pain receptors. He tried to take a breath but the air already in his lungs felt as thick as honey and refused to allow anything else entrance. Sylver felt his chest vibrate and shatter the bones that touched it, and for a single moment worried his insides would melt from the intensity.

And just as quickly as the rush of pain and power started, it disappeared.

Sylver was left with not so much as a warmth in his stomach from what should have torn him into tiny bits and pieces.

If it weren’t for the gigantic river inside of his body that used to be a small stream he wouldn’t have known anything had changed at all. Sylver guided the still-growing river into every crook and cranny that he could find.

Once he was more or less done Sylver looked up at the zombies standing at the ready and walked over to them. He felt [Shadow’s Agent] react as if he were poking a raw wound before the perk’s pathways made way for Sylver’s significantly denser mana.

Starting from the zombie standing closest to Sylver, the skin around its face began to lightly smoke, as the dim yellow lights in its eyes became a gold-like flare. Where previously the zombie stood slack-jawed and with a slightly jagged stance, it now perked up and stood as if it were a soldier standing at attention.

The short sword in the zombie’s hand made a soft creaking noise as thin tendrils of yellow traveled up from the handle and wrapped around the edges of the blade.

Sylver leaned into his spell and the magic began to spread faster and faster. It took him a few minutes, but it would have taken him hours before. The more mana you had the less you had to use to kickstart a spell, Sylver’s MP might have only doubled, but what he could do had increased exponentially.

The glow faded slightly as Sylver stopped the flow of mana, but the effect was noticeable.

Sylver looked down at his hands and removed the layer of darkness covering them. He turned them over and could see the outline of his bones through his pale skin. His fingernails were so black they looked as if there was a hole in place of where should be.

Sylver flicked his hands and all at once all the skin and nails covering his bones disappeared into a faint puff of ashes, as his bones appeared to be on fire. He closed his hands into a fist and the fire-like effect became much stronger, now breaking away as the tips of the flames went too far away from the source.

As Sylver opened his hands again, the fire was sucked in and stayed around his bones as if it were skin. Sylver’s robe pulled back the remains of the sleeve and he could see the burning effect stopped right underneath his elbows. The bones were unnaturally white, with the skin directly below the elbows healed as if it had been gone for years.

Spring was busy looking down at himself and his body, as the faint glowing cracks of yellow had turned into deep golden tendrils. His previously wispy and barely solid shape had become hard and sharp as if a person with poor sight suddenly put on glasses and could see him clearly now. When Spring spoke a puff of bright yellow smoke escaped from his mouth.

“I feel like I’m about to burst. But at the same time, I feel as solid as a rock. This is incredible,” Spring said under his breath and while opening and closing his onyx-like fingers.

“It’s not enough for 3rd tier, but… I can’t express how much I missed this,” Sylver said, as he spread his fingers out and let sparks of bright yellow lightning crackle dangerously, jumping from one bony digit to the next.

Total Level: 99
[Koschei-5]
[Necromancer-94]

CON: 100
DEX: 100
STR: 41
INT: 185
WIS: 100
AP: 0

Health: 953/1,000
Stamina: 500/500
MP: 4,293/4,625

Health Regen: 11.67/M
Stamina Regen: 7.5/M
MP Regen: 809.38/M

I doubled my MP, I’ve fucking quintupled my MP regeneration.

Spring looked up from inspecting his body and smiled with dangerously pointed teeth.

“No point standing around and talking about it,” Spring offered, as Sylver just nodded at him, and spread his arms out.

The zombies standing around the hole all jumped forward in perfect unison and disappeared into the deep dark well in mere seconds. Sylver counted to three and turned into smoke and followed them down into the pitch-black rushing water below.

When the makeshift dam that made the stream coming out of the cave a manageable speed exploded, the torrent of water smashed whatever formation the rebels were holding, and was quickly followed by zombies, shades, and a cloud of pitch-black smoke, that crackled with yellow lightning and had floating bright red daggers slicing through the water around it.

*

**

*

In hindsight, Sylver should have seen this coming.

Their whole thing was sharing information, so of course, the mages here knew how to use ice magic.

Sylver started working the moment he felt the spell starting to form. The zombies submerged in water were grabbed by [Dead Dominion] and were thrown high into the air. In mere seconds torrent of water had been reduced to absolutely nothing, as every single warrior inside of the cave was standing on top of the suddenly frozen ground.

There were no questions, no promises, no monologues, not even greetings or threats.

Just a dead silent, save for the roaring of the warriors, battle between two opposing groups. Sylver lost three zombies in a single swipe of one warrior’s sword, and four more went down when an arrow skewered them through the head, and made a turn to the right and skewered two more.

A woman warrior wielding some sort of spiked ball at the end of a chain kicked the ball through the chest of a particularly large zombie, and then made the ball expand while inside of the zombie, and then sent the zombies standing nearby flying, using the zombie’s body as a weight.

The ice crunched beneath Sylver’s feet as he ran towards the two mages. He used [Dead Dominion] to grab hold of the zombies around him and pushed them backward, and propelled him forward, to the point that he was just barely touching the ice. Sylver saw the mana moving through the frozen solid ground and moved 4 floating daggers in front of him.

As the ice spike started to sprout from the ground, Sylver’s daggers dived down towards the source and embedded themselves into it. It wasn’t enough force to stop the moving enchanted ice, but the daggers caused it to curve to the side, and away from Sylver. The needle fine tip of the ice spike missed the edge of Sylver’s mask by less than a finger’s width, as Sylver turned into smoke for a fraction of a second and passed right through it.

Glowing yellow arrows flew past Sylver’s head and the wall of arrows had a Sylver-shaped hole in them, as they shattered against an invisible barrier erected by one of the mages, with a couple of the shade archer's arrows embedded the slightest amount into it.

Sylver kicked against the ground, or tried to, as his boot went into the suddenly liquid ice, and nearly caused him to trip and fall. He caused three nearby zombies to disappear under the liquid ice, as Sylver used the opposing force to send himself flying into the air, and away from the volley of icicles directly in front of him, and the red hot glowing arrow on his left.

He used his [Mana Perception] to get a feel for the ceiling, and found it covered in blunted stalactites. One of Sylver’s daggers flew upwards and sat flat against one of the larger rock formations. Sylver tried to push it away from him, and as the dagger pressed against he heavy rock, Sylver was sent flying away from it instead.

Sylver saw the two mage’s figures become blurry for a fraction of a second, while one of the zombies buried in the now solid ice shimmered and exploded as its carved body phased through the ice.

Sylver’s robe lifted his chin up, as a silver-tipped arrow passed so close to Sylver’s neck that he felt his skin sear from the momentary contact.

That small movement caused Sylver to react too slowly, as the ice below him turned into slush and exploded up into the air, towards him. He felt, more than saw, the razor-sharp ice blades mixed into the slush, and turned into smoke to avoid getting cut up by them. They passed through him without any issues, as did the oddly thin layer of slush.

Sylver’s smoke form had just enough time to condense into a sphere, as the slush suddenly froze over and formed into a clear as glass ice bubble around him. Sylver made his bony fingers as straight as an arrow, as he stabbed them at the ice bubble, and felt them threaten to splinter from the force.

Sylver saw that both mages were standing perfectly still, with both of their hands open, and pointed towards Sylver, while the zombies and shades nearby disappeared one by one, some managing to take a warrior out with them.

Sylver locked eyes with the mage on the left, an elf with a shaved head and a missing right eye. The bomb appeared in Sylver’s hand, as he pressed it up against the bubble wall and covered it with his hands. Sylver felt his mask shatter as he sent a spark through the trigger.

The bubble held on for a terrifying half a second before it couldn’t handle it and sent Sylver flying backward, away from the two mages. He was glad to see one of them was bleeding from his nose from the effort of keeping him contained. Sylver turned into smoke midair, and used the dagger embedded in the rock ceiling to push him forward and towards the two mages.

Sylver felt his robe react behind him, as a lead-lined sword traveled towards it. Sylver kicked off from an invisible platform and leaned backward until he saw the top of the attacker’s helmet. It was made of thin steel, with three horns on the top. Sylver grabbed the man by the middle horn near the front, and as he pulled the helmet back, a [Coat Of Carrion] coated dagger descended downward and disappeared into the man’s neck.

[??? (Warrior+Brawler+Swordsman +Rogue+Warrior) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 10 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

Sylver felt his soul connect to the suddenly dead body. He felt the still red hot muscles in the man’s arms tear as he forced his sword to stop mid-swing, and threw it towards the two mages. As the man let go of the sword, Sylver simultaneously kicked off his head and used [Dead Dominion] to send him flying backward, propelling Sylver ahead.

The two mages nodded their heads the tiniest amount as Sylver practically flew towards them. Sylver extended his hand out and felt the ice spike below him enter his belly. Sylver’s robe grabbed hold around the slippery and sharp spike and made a crying sound as it kept Sylver’s body from bending from the force acting on his stomach, and stopped the spike from skewering him.

Sylver was nearly sent flying once again before he pulled at the zombies buried deep beneath the ice to keep his body in place. As he saw the mages get ready for another attack Sylver decided this was close enough, and with a flick of his hand made three spikes appear between his fingers.

The spikes glowed so brightly that they looked like they were about to melt before they disappeared from his hand.

[Elf (Mage+Mage+Mage+Mage+Elementalist) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 40 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[??? (Mage+Mage+Mage+Mage+Mage+Elementalist) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 30 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[Necromancer] has reached level 98!
+5AP

The two mages barely reacted as the overcharged spikes passed through their heads and came out cleanly on the other side, splattering the wall of ice with blood, bone, and brain.

Sylver’s robe caught him before he hit the icy ground and placed him on his feet. He looked around and saw that there were dead bodies everywhere, some were Sylver’s zombies, some were untouched. Three warriors remained, with their backs against the wall of ice, and wielding oddly curved swords.

Sylver could barely see what was happening, as one of them would block a zombie’s sword, and the zombie would then topple over-sliced to pieces.

[Human (Warrior+Warrior) – 144]

[Human (Swordsman+Warrior+Warrior) – 131]

[Human [Warrior+Warrior+Warrior) – 140]

The shades had no chance, they were destroyed before they even started materializing. The arrows the shade archers fired just disappeared into thin air. Sylver cocked his head at this as one of the warriors turned towards him and locked eyes.

He raised his left hand towards the man.

[Human [Warrior+Warrior+Warrior) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 40 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[Human (Warrior+Warrior) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 40 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[Human (Swordsman+Warrior+Warrior) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 30 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

The man was about to say something, as morning sunlight suddenly blinded Sylver. His hand was glowing white-hot and the skin near his elbow was steaming, as he got onto one knee and pressed it against the quickly liquefying ice. The ice turned into water and bubbled and sputtered as it tried to handle Sylver’s heated hand.

Sylver looked up as the three bodies toppled over, all cut horizontally in half, through the heart, as was the wall of ice directly behind them, leaving a slightly slanted hole. The morning light spread out through the cave, as the light reflected and refracted all over the place. The smooth walls slick with blood further reflected the light, and the small hole made the whole cave sparkle.

Somewhere in the background, Sylver heard the sound of Lorn dry heaving, as he stood up from the now barely solid ice, and stepped onto an invisible platform. Sylver’s left hand was charred and black and smoking, and it squeaked as he tried to close it into a fist, charcoal rubbing against charcoal.

Sylver walked over towards the three dead warriors and placed his hand on the area that used to be their chests. Sylver’s left calf had at some point been cut off, but he couldn’t recall when or who had done it. He flexed his leg as the muscle regrew, and was careful to absorb the warriors’ health slowly and without wasting any.

Sylver continually opened and closed his bony hands as his nerves and blood vessels crawled up his forearms and knit over his fingers. His muscles followed closely after, moving up in layers and followed closely by his skin. Sylver waved his left hand around as the charcoal fell off his bones as if it were dirt, and fresh clean white bone revealed itself.

The wall of ice that Sylver had initially come through fell and began to flush the cave out into the river, trying to drag all the dead bodies along with it. Sylver calmly walked over to the entrance and as the ice that stopped the river from working full force broke down completely, used [Dead Dominion] to catch each and every piece and corpse, and made it float a short distance above him.

Very gradually Sylver’s heart calmed down and stopped threatening to rip itself out of its indestructible confines. His eyes stopped glowing too, as the zombies and chunks of flesh rose out of the foaming red water and floated upwards into the ball of gore.

Sylver saw everything darken for a moment, and very quickly ran out of the cave and towards the solid ground. The corpses and zombies fell around him as his concentration wavered and he lost his grip on them. The few shades that remained grabbed them out of the water and threw them near Sylver, as the large ball of bodies broke apart and fell down and turned into a mound of corpses.

Sylver got on all fours and looked down at the earthy ground, as he tried to fight the backlash off. He made a noise that might have been interpreted as a burp before he began to violently vomit.

The vomit was darker than it had any right to be and had bits of shriveled red flesh mixed into it, along with a discolored liquid that was far too watery to be called blood. Sylver’s whole body shuddered and he lost the strength in his arms and nearly fell face-first into his own vomit. A nameless shade appeared right before his face made contact, and helped him stay as he was.

Sylver continued to vomit for a long while, expelling far too much material for a man of his size. The skin on his left hand turned grey and leathery before Sylver tried to lift it up to inspect it and found that most of it stayed glued to the ground. The bones that were left were brown and full of small cracks and leaking a sickly yellow bone marrow from in-between the cracks.

At one point Sylver heaved too hard, and his left eyeball fell out of its socket and hung loosely for a few seconds until he pushed it back into place.

After five minutes of continuous vomiting and breaking apart and forcing himself back together, Sylver slumped over to the side and lay on his back. One of the smaller suns had gone ahead of the others and now sat nearly at the apex, while the others were slowly catching up.

Sylver took very slow and very deep breaths, each time forcing his body to not start coughing. Each breath sounded hoarse and haggard and when Sylver tried to speak he found that his throat was clogged up with slime-like gunk.

He closed his mouth and breathed through his nose for a few minutes, watching the fluffy white clouds lazily move through the sky.

“I realize this is a stupid question, but are you ok?” Lorn asked, almost sheepishly appearing out of nowhere and being careful not to get into Sylver’s direct line of sight.

Sylver silently breathed in and out through his nose, before he chewed on something in his mouth and spat out what looked like pitch-black jelly. He took another deep breath and spoke in a low whisper.

“I’ll be fine. I overestimated what I’m capable of, but it’s fine. Just give me a minute, I’ll be fine,” Sylver said, as he healed Spring and for just a moment focused solely on himself to figure out where most of the damage had been done.

By the time Sylver opened his eyes and stood up, it was already nighttime. The corpses had been searched, prepped, and the useful ones had a bone of some kind laying on top of their chests. Sylver was surprised at how much Spring had managed to get done with only a few shades to command.

He started healing the destroyed ones in his shadow as he walked over to the river and splashed some water on his face. He hadn’t passed out, but it was pretty close considering how hard he had concentrated on himself.

As less water than he was expecting reached his face, Sylver looked at his hands properly.

His left hand was an odd grey, with a few small, but noticeable cracks near the tips of the finger bones. Sylver moved it through the running water and used his right hand’s nail to pick at the grey bones. A layer peeled away as Sylver pulled at it, and revealed a much thinner bone underneath. It was a paler, healthier color, but still not as white as it should be.

If Nyx saw me right now she would cry… What kind of low-grade undead nonsense is this?

Sylver covered his left hand in darkness and scooped up some more water and rinsed his mouth with it, before spitting it back out into the river.

“Are you alright?” Lorn asked, as Sylver stood up from the river and flicked the water off his darkness-covered hands.

“I’m fine, but I am going to insist that you never mention what you saw after I left the cave,” Sylver said, as he reached his hand out towards the floating bone and tapped it against the matching floating body and made it disappear. He put the filled-up bone into a wooden box Spring had found and prepared.

“Is your hand going to be fine?” Lorn asked, pointing at Sylver’s left hand that he was allowing to rest for the time being.

“It is, but I need you to promise you’re going to keep what you saw to yourself. For public image reasons as well as… etiquette reasons. Look, I can’t explain it unless you’re undead, but I am asking you as politely as possible never to tell anyone, and I do mean anyone, what you saw,” Sylver said, emphasizing his words as much as he could.

“You have my word. Or I swear on my name, as your kind would say,” Lorn promised. Sylver looked over towards the left and saw 4 severed heads that had been cleaned and had a bandage around their necks to make them as presentable as possible. One head belonged to one of the mages, two belonged to two of those warriors with the curved swords, and the fourth Sylver didn’t recognize.

“I take it you want them to be handed over along with Pork-Chop?” Sylver asked with a gesture towards them.

“LAMB-CH… oh never mind. Yes, don’t mix them up please, otherwise no one is going to believe me. I don’t know if I should be happy that their stories ended with you, or pissed off that they died in such a… way,” Lorn said, as he tried to find a word that wasn’t a synonym of dishonorable but failed.

“Don’t worry, I’m keeping all of the heads in my skull,” Sylver said as he tapped his head. “And in my defense, or in the defense of people that die, you would be amazed at how many legends died in the most anti-climactic and downright depressing way,” Sylver offered, as the four heads floated over to him and disappeared as they touched his hand.

“Like what?” Lorn asked, with a strange mix of genuinely being curious and mock.

“In the same way these people’s names don’t mean anything to me, the names I could tell you about wouldn’t mean anything to you,” Sylver explained, as Lorn seemed to just nod along.

“Just to sate my curiosity, why exactly did… well the whole thing after you left the cave,” Lorn asked, being as gentle as possible with his words.

“In short it was a very grim reminder about the unfairness of the world. You can be the smartest and greatest mage to ever live or die, and all it takes is being born into the wrong kind of body to make whatever talent or skill you might have nearly worthless,” Sylver said, as the rest of the corpses slowly floated into the air and moved towards him.