Skill leveled [Steadfast] Lv.8

  Skill leveled [Advanced Sword Mastery] Lv.3

  You have defeated [Reanimated Warrior] Lv.18

  You have defeated [Reanimated Warrior] Lv.17

  You have defeated [Reanimated Brawler] Lv.14

  What the fuck.

  Ethan paused, staring at the notifications. He had thought there was something different about the undead. And he had been right. These weren’t normal undead, the kind that had fallen to the desert or monsters. No. Reanimation was a skill at work. And judging from the way they had fought, it was high leveled. Maybe even evolved.

  Frowning, he grabbed his pack and quickly pulled out his journal. The inside was covered in notes. By all rights, he held a cheat code in his hands. Yet as he skimmed through everything he had on level one, he found nothing about reanimation. Nothing major he could remember. Which was strange, because if something like that had happened before, he would have remembered. Necromancer was one of the classes every guild had tried to eradicate.

  He put the book away and let out a slow breath.

  Something was changing.

  He considered it for a moment. Or perhaps nothing had changed at all, and the person behind this had simply never been caught. At least not on the first level.

  He forced himself to think of the positives. If nothing else, he was glad to see that when a worthy challenger wielding a weapon appeared, his sword mastery could advance.

  Still unsettled, but faintly satisfied at the skill progression, he checked the corpses more thoroughly, hoping to shed some light on what was happening.

  The warrior’s sword was in worse condition than Ethan’s, so he ignored it and focused on the body itself. The man didn’t have much on him, apart from a small purse of copper tucked into a hidden compartment. Ethan took the coins and moved on to the others.

  He discovered each of them had a small stitched tag inside their robes with their names. It didn’t mean anything to Ethan, but he cut them off carefully and stored them away. He would return them to their guild.

  The other two carried nothing else of value. Even the man’s axe, though it was in decent condition, he wasn’t going to carry it around. Fuck, he kind of wished Thane was here.

  Ethan gathered his pack, adjusted his sword at his hip, and looked toward the exit where the man had fled.

  By the time he moved deeper through the gorge, darkness had settled in fully. The canyon walls swallowed what little light remained, leaving only scattered stars above to guide him.

  After fifteen or so minutes, his thoughts still circling around who could be behind this, he found it.

  A blood trail. It cut unevenly through the sand, leading out into the dunes.

  Ethan activated [Keen Sense] once more, but he immediately felt the drain. After keeping it active for so long earlier, it was finally beginning to fatigue him.

  Active skills relied on the soul. Like all skills, they were etched into him, and activating them caused strain. Skills like [Steadfast] were passive, drawing energy constantly, but only a trickle. Others, like [Advanced Sword Mastery], required a heavier pull. Ethan had taken to calling it soul juice. The skill would flood knowledge directly into his body and, to a lesser extent, shape it to suit the technique. But once the skill was ingrained, his soul juice could recover.

  Then there were magical skills, which required both soul juice and mana. He did not have one yet, but he intended to.

  All of this meant he had used a lot of his soul juice by keeping [Keen Sense] active. Now it was showing. The fatigue felt bone deep. Cultivation had strengthened his soul, but it had also strengthened his skills, causing the two effects to push against each other. It was a problem many mages faced. Powerful spells, but insufficient reserves to sustain them. For the second time, Thane came to mind. He could cast well enough, but his reserves were shallow.

  Ethan knew of a way to fix that, though. He had planned to return to Highrocks and begin body cultivation to reinforce his soul.

  But plans had changed.

  So for now he let [Keen Sense] fade and followed the blood trail using his natural senses.

  Eventually, he found the man.

  He lay face down in the dunes, half-buried by windblown sand. At first glance, he looked dead. Ethan hoped he wasn’t.

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  He approached cautiously and rolled him over.

  A dagger struck for his neck instantly.

  Ethan caught the man’s wrist mid-thrust, stopping the blade a breath from his skin. He had kind of expected it.

  The man let out a broken breath. “Get it over with then.”

  “Look at me, you idiot. Do I look like a reanimation?” Ethan snapped, anger slipping into his voice.

  The man tried to speak, but blood pooled from his mouth. So Ethan pressed on.

  “What happened? Who is behind this?”

  The man coughed, wiping at his mouth with a shaking hand. “My team… are they alive?”

  “I don’t know. Who is behind this?”

  The dagger slipped from the man’s grip, and instead he grabbed Ethan’s shirt.

  “You have to heal me. Please. I’m dying.”

  Ethan looked him up and down. His robes were soaked through with blood. “You’re not dying. Answer the question.”

  The man sputtered weakly.

  Ethan’s emotions were starting to fray. He needed to know who was responsible. He needed to know what was happening. He needed to know where his sister was.

  All he could think about was if this had been Leah. If this was how she had died the last time. Turned into a reanimation before being erased entirely when the level collapsed.

  He grabbed the man harder. “Tell me now.”

  “It was the Broken Dawns,” the man choked. “They attacked us at Arrow Town. I got away.”

  He paused, wiping blood from his face again. “I’m dying. Please.”

  Ethan released him. The man fell back into the sand, blood pooling beneath him.

  Ethan checked his PO. Five hundred and eight.

  He could heal him. Maybe even save him.

  But then what?

  He would be left with almost nothing for his class evolution at level twenty. If he kept spending PO on situations like this, he would never gain the power he needed.

  He looked down at the man.

  “Please,” the man whispered.

  “You’ll be alright. You’re not dying,” Ethan lied, it was clear the man was on deaths door.

  He reached down and picked up the dagger from the sand. But it wasn’t subtle enough.

  The man saw.

  “N—”

  Ethan drove the blade up through his chin and into his brain.

  Blood spilled over Ethan’s hand as the man went still. Ethan forced himself to watch as the light left his eyes.

  “I’m sorry.”

  You have defeated [Archer] Lv. 18

  He pulled the blade free.

  He could justify it. The man was already on death’s door. His robes were drenched, likely hiding a fatal wound. Even if Ethan spent the PO, the man might still have died. And then what? Carry him back to Mountford. Lose time. Lose resources.

  Still, he wasn’t too happy about having to finish the man off.

  But it came down to his growth and his sister’s safety, or a stranger who would likely die anyway.

  He drew his sword and, with grim resolve, finished what he had started. The blade cut cleanly through the man’s neck, severing the head.

  At least he now he could rest properly, without becoming an undead.

  Ethan stood in the quiet desert, wind sweeping sand across blood-darkened dunes, and forced himself not to look back.

  He had a destination now. He just needed to find the damn place.

  His journal had explained the general location, and he knew it was close to the gorge. So hopefully he would have some luck.

  As for what the man had said about it being the Broken Dawns, Ethan had some doubts. By all means, he would admit he wasn’t the smartest. His education was lacking. But even he could see this reeked of some kind of plot. The pieces did not line up cleanly. Reanimations. A survivor conveniently blaming a rival guild. It felt too neat. Too convenient. And he knew for certain there were no necromancers in the Broken Dawns. As much as Alex had upset him by withholding information, he knew the man wouldn’t stand for that.

  But still, something wasn’t adding up. He just needed to find out what.

  So he turned, looking out at nothing, because it had gotten pitch fucking black. The desert had swallowed what little light remained. The gorge behind him was a jagged smear of deeper shadow. The dunes ahead were nothing but shifting outlines against a star-scattered sky.

  For a brief moment, he considered searching the gorge more. But quickly decided against it. He would check it during daytime, when he could see what was going on.

  His best bet was to find the settlement. It likely had lighting, which should make it easier to spot in the dark.

  He adjusted his pack and started walking.

  —~~—

  Bella followed the stranger for hours.

  From a distance, he looked almost aimless, circling wide through the dunes like a lost lamb that refused to accept it was lost. But she knew better. She had seen his senses in action. Seen how he reacted inside the gorge. The way he had adjusted to armed reanimations without hesitation. The way he had fought.

  Impressive did not quite cover it.

  Still, she was growing bored.

  What the hell was he doing?

  He would crest a dune, pause, adjust slightly, then move again. It was infuriating.

  Bella kept her distance, careful to stay outside the range she suspected his perception could reliably cover. The first time she had brushed too close in the gorge, he had almost spotted her. She would not make that mistake again.

  The desert at night was her ally. She moved low and quiet, using the natural dips in the sand to break line of sight. Her skill [Vital Sight] allowed her to track him with ease while keeping her distance.

  It wasn’t until the dunes began to slope differently, the terrain flattening into a shallow basin, that realization dawned.

  Arrow Town.

  Her gaze sharpened.

  He wasn’t circling randomly. He had been narrowing in.

  Which wasn’t good.

  If he found the settlement on his own, that complicated things. She considered interfering. But with his senses, anything obvious might tip him off that he was being followed and she wasn’t prepared to use any of her skills.

  She did not want him turning that sword on her.

  So she stayed patient and followed.

  By the time the faintest outline of structures began to materialize against the starlit horizon, it was late as hell. She was tired and ready to sleep.

  But it looked like he found what he was looking for.

  Arrow Town lay half-hidden in a natural depression. Dim lantern light flickered from within, like a beacon in the night.

  He slowed as he approached, looking down at the town. Studying it.

  Bella clicked her tongue softly under her breath.

  Damn.

  Looks like she would need to discuss this with the others.

  That was a pity.

  She had been enjoying watching him. There was something refreshingly simple about his brutality. No theatrics. No speeches. Just action. Even the way he had dealt with the dying Valkyrie had been cold and efficient.

  Ruthless.

  She liked that.

  But if he was sniffing around Arrow Town, this was no longer casual observation. This was a problem. And he was going to ruin all her planning.

  Bella shifted backward, letting the darkness swallow her as she prepared to retreat.

  Time to tell the others.

  And hope they found him as interesting as she did.