Splash

Most of the stats had hardly changed. Some of them did grow a bit but… but I was hoping they'd grow more. They didn't though.

Oh well.

But necromancy did level up a fair bit and for the first time I could actually feel the life in the air. I could feel the warmth, the golden bits even though I was so far up the building. I just looked out, out the streets and there they were… the golden bits.

Well, if this truly did turn out to be a dud, I just had to level up to 60 and try again, right? So, yeah, "Summon."

A horse, a knight, and a head.

The Dullahan.

I crossed my legs on the bed, and the knight bowed in a knightly manner. "Well, let's hear it. What's your excuse for attacking the city's economy?"

"…"

The knight remained quiet but he did attempt to speak to me mentally. He didn't speak any words. But he did convey what I asked.

And the gist of it was simple. They were here to investigate a case. Apparently Escalor and Siarre were famous adventurers who often experimented with living beings. Well, famous wasn't the right word. They were infamous rather. They experimented with people, and often laid waste to unassuming villages. They were a blight of sorts.

And to prevent them from doing anything too dangerous, the State of Varnia would often disperse holy knights to investigate and put a stop to them. And if possible, get rid of the two.

"That doesn't explain why you came after me," I said.

Our man Dullahan here made the judgement call that I was too dangerous since I could do what the two half-dead couldn't and do it way more efficiently too. In other words, I was a blight and a thorn in their sides. I could see where they were coming from.

But hey, I never thought those two were into human experiments of all things. That was kind of messed up. I'd understand if they were experimenting on Dark elves but… Well, it's not like I'm any better. I chuckled. "Makes sense. I hear an Emissary is coming here from Sondar. Know anything?"

He remained quiet. And no, this time he didn't quite spill any beans. Kind of annoying but I let him off the hook. I did kill the man in cold blood and turned his horse into a skeleton too… oh well.

That said, I sent him back, closed my eyes for a few minutes and strode out.

Vivia was still going to be sleeping for a few more hours, so it didn't hurt to try out my more powerful necromancy. And maybe this time I'll be able to finally cast some water and wind spells too.

***

I hunted along with my skeleton army and knight throughout the day. The army grew double in size. From just typical snakes, to even large ogres. Not to mention the goblins. I had basically all the monsters in this area. And yeah, no more mindless husks. I could see their souls. And if I willed it, I could even force living things to turn into skeletons; though that still had a small tendency to fail. And the skeletons were coming out decent too, with quite decent stats. Not bad. Not bad at all! But more importantly, they weren't a literal drain on my HP anymore. Quite a few of them were only sucking back 10% of what they used to and most were barely running on half! Not to mention some had their own individual HP pools! Major improvement!

"Wind blade!" I yelled. But nope, still nothing. Water ball didn't work either. My darkness and thunder affinity did improve though. Now I could snuff out things even easier and I tried the strongest skill, Darkeen, which basically made the whole area, the literal whole area of the city into a moonless night. I'm sure the citizens were hella confused but oh well.

By the time I was done, it was evening. And Vivia was standing by the city gates for me.

She yawned. "You just left."

That I did. "Bored."

"Let's go get something to eat then?"

That was our whole routine. Eat, go fight stuff, eat, rest, and then go fight stuff. I didn't need to rest but the eating part was important. So, we did that.

"We'll be leaving this city before next month."

"Okay."

No hesitation whatsoever.

 ***

Later that week, they held a ceremony in my honor and even gave me some awards and stuff. I didn't really feel much of anything so as usual, I just played the role of a passive guest and moved on. People seemed to genuinely like me for some reason though. Weird. But 100 Hex, seriously? An ordinary man wouldn't have had to work for the rest of their lives! Too bad I wasn't ordinary though.

I continued my hunting sessions and slowly by the end of week three, I'd finally reached A on my necromancy skills. And for the first time ever, I could now see the soul of the beast down in the water. I could tame it.

However, I wanted to level up a bit more just in case.

"You've been staring into the lake everyday now. Interested in the legend?" Vivia asked.

We'd done some shopping for our journey.

"What legend? The thing beneath the lake?"

"Yes. The sleeping serpent of yonder."

"I was expecting something more in the lines of a large fish or a crocodile but a snake huh?"

The sleeping beast of yonder, I'd read about it in the legends and heard from Escalor. However, none of those legends classified the reptilian monster there as a serpent. I always thought it was a gator or a dragon.

"It's said, the Sleeping Serpent sets up nest in a lake and enriches the land with her mana. Once a large enough civilization takes hold, she comes up and devours everything and restarts."

"Rather terrifying."

"Yeah. But that happens only once every thousands of years. And most people just think it's a legend."

"Do you?" I said.

"I mean. A serpent bigger than the Anacobra? Hard to imagine."

Yes. For me too. At least it would have been, if I wasn't staring directly at that mass of golden soul. Darn thing was big, strong and… coming up?

"It's coming up…" I mumbled.

"My lord that's not funny you know," Vivia snickered but as she stared at the water, her face turned pale as a sheet. "We need to run."

"Run where?"

"Anywhere but here. It'll eat us all!"

"No, I'll just turn it before it gets the chance. Necrom-"

SPLASH!