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Upon listening to my request, a smile blossomed on Gerard's skull. While a smiling skull would give someone the creeps, somehow I felt that if Sir Gerard were a human, it would have been a smile that one would show when they are satisfied or when they achieved something without putting in as much effort as they had expected to.

"Well, Marcus, no need for the formalities. It saves me the trouble of recruiting you. I'm sure the upper echelons of the guild will be quite interested in a self-awakened." replied Gerard with a smiling face.

"I think this is the second time you have called me a self-awakened. Can you tell me what that means?" I asked being genuinely curious inferring from the way he said it, it must be something precious or rare. 

With an expression on his skull stating as if I'm asking the obvious, Gerard replied "Explain Self Awakened? That's exactly what it means, self-awakened." 

However, after seeing my confused face or rather skull, he sighed as if a realization had dawned upon him.

"Ah right, you had lost most of your memories. Allow me to fetch my boat as the journey will be a long one, I'll explain the details on the way."

'Boat? In the forest?' For a moment I almost thought that my hearing deficiency had transmigrated with me and I'm gonna be half deaf in my second life too.

Whooshhh!

However, just when I had stabilized my mind from the endless surprises or shocks received in the short duration, I saw something to once again uproot my stability.

Followed by the sound of air being cut as if something was flying very rapidly through the wind, I saw a small wooden boat appear in front of me. It must have come flying from a distance however, it felt as if it suddenly appeared due to my very small field of vision.

"Sir Gerard, is this the boat you mentioned? Also, how is it floating in place?"

"Haha, if this surprises you, wait till you reach our headquarters. Anyways step in, it seems I will have to start from the beginning since you don't even know what this artifact is."

Feeling like a country bumpkin, I step inside the boat. The boat has two seats, Gerard sits on the front seat and I take the one behind. 

"Alright, hold tight, since this is your first journey and you keep asking a lot of questions, I'll take it slow this time."

"Thank you. Flying in a boat, sounds excitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-!" Before I could finish my sentence, the boat jerked upwards at an astonishingly high speed and in an instant, I'm sure we had ascended close to 400 metres which is half the height of the tallest building built by mankind back in my first life.

In a couple of seconds, we stopped rising and stabilized on the height. If I was still a human, I would have definitely felt the knots in my stomach. 

Just when I had a moment of respite, the boat moved ahead at a speed that was much faster than most of the F1 cars back on earth. 

Gritting my teeth, I squeezed out "Gerard! I-is this r-really slow slow?" I yelled barely holding on thanks to the menacing speed of this damned vessel.

"Did you just address me by my name?"

'Ah, I slipped.' Thinking of a suitable excuse, I said "I apologize sir, I remember a few things from my hometown and we used to address each other by only first names regardless of seniority."

All of a sudden he turned his head 180 degrees and looked at me with a face that seemed to say I know what you are doing. Fortunately, he turned back facing the front perhaps to focus on steering the boat, and said

"It's alright, I will let it go this time as I know your circumstances. However, keep in mind that people here take their titles very seriously. Try not to make these errors repeatedly as some of them might end your life just to set an example."

"This can't be right," I said, a mixture of fear and anger rising within me.

"It seems you really remember nothing important except a few bad practices like not using titles. Worry not, we have a long journey ahead of us and I will have to teach you the etiquette of the undead as well as other races since if you misbehave, I might also get punished for bringing in someone foul-mouthed."

"F-Foul mouthed?" It's been a long time since someone has questioned my manners. However, speaking rudely with a superior could decide your life in this world so I'm actually grateful to have learned this before making an actual error.

"I apologize for interrupting. Please continue sir."

"So you are not that dim-witted. Good. Now listen very carefully, I will explain the basics of this world.

This world has two continents Elyria and Umbra. We are currently in the Elyria continent. I'm sure the Seal in your soul will contain most of this information, so I won't expand a lot on that. I'll teach you later on how to absorb that information.

In the Elyria continent, we are currently in a region called The Restless Meadows."

Looking at me to make sure I'm still there with him, Gerard continued.

"You might have guessed from the name, but the undead and the ghosts occupy most if not all of this region."

"D-d-did you say g-g-ghosts?" I asked feeling shivers passing through my spine.

"Haha, look at you, isn't it embarrassing to be afraid of ghosts now that you are an undead? Are you sure you were 104 years old when you passed away?" Gerard let out a chuckle seemingly enjoying my plight, however, what he said made sense.

'How different is a ghost from a talking and animated skeleton?' I pondered to myself as Gerard continued explaining.

"The Restless Meadows region is around one-fifth of the continent and is jointly governed by the Ossuary Alliance of the undead and the Spectral Consortium of the ghosts. Both races occupy around half of the Restless Meadows with the Ossuary Alliance occupying the western half and the Spectral Consortium occupying the eastern half.

Currently, we are in the southernmost region of the territory of the Ossuary Alliance. Had you continued walking in the direction you were walking at the time, in a few hours or maybe in around a day's time you would have arrived at the Dwarven territory and before you could realize what happened, you would be put to rest."

'Wow, this world really goes all out when it comes to fantasy races. First the Undead and the Ghosts, and now Dwarves. Surprisingly, I still haven't heard about humans.'

"Sir Gerard, In truth, I had expected something like this, however, is the relationship between the undead and the living actually so strained that I would be killed as soon as I step into their territory?" I asked curious about the relationships between the different races.

Looking at me with an emotion that seemed to be a mix of pity and curiosity, Gerard responded

"It's strange, usually even self-awakened do not lose so many memories that they would even forget things that are considered common sense. Perhaps near the end of your life, you must have had some disease leading to memory loss."

I nodded allowing the misunderstanding to deepen as revealing my origin as an otherworlder might have unforeseen consequences and I have a feeling that most of it would be bad for me.

"Alright, to answer your question, the relationship between the races is more or less peaceful for now. While the other races would not treat the undead or ghosts as one of their own, they also would not make things difficult or cause problems for them.

This is because, thanks to the undead, the other races can become much more prosperous without risking their own lives as the undead can work in any deadly conditions without suffering even 1 percent of what other races would suffer there.

However, the undead have one flaw. A very strong innate instinct to destroy life. There is a way for the undead to overcome this instinct.

Around a thousand years ago, the undead and the ghosts were confined to the Restless Meadows, and other than the few people in the upper echelons with significant reputation in the world, nobody would be able to leave this forest region. 

However, if this desire could be controlled, the undead and the ghosts would be a very promising force as allies. 

As the residents of the Meadow desired freedom and the living desired alliance with the dead, they came together to form various agreements to ensure that while the dead could roam around freely, when in the land of the living, they would be subjected to the laws of the living and if perceived as a threat, a kill on sight order would be issued.

Thus the Ossuary Alliance and the Spectral Consortium came together and designed a system where they could gauge if a particular undead or ghost creature can resist their instinct successfully and issued magical identity tokens for those that have the ability.

Had you gone to the Dwarven territory without the identity token, an alarm would sound, and being newly awakened, resisting the instinct would be extremely difficult if not impossible for you and hence you would be perceived as a threat and finished off before you could blink."

Acknowledging the lengthy explanation with a nod, I wrapped my head around the ways of this world and asked "I see so my death would have been due to me attacking them first and them responding. However, I don't feel any desire to kill a living being right now, does that mean I can get that identity token right away?"

"Not so fast Marcus. You see, this is the Restless Meadows. Every single thing you see here is dead. The trees, the grass, the insects, every creature as far as even my vision can see is already dead. Thus this region is like a safe zone for the undead and ghostly creatures."

We flew for around an hour with Marcus explaining to me the basics of the world along with some etiquette and social values of the undead. Soon I felt the boat slowing down for the first time since the take-off.

"Alright Marcus, what we have in front of us is the mining town New Haven. The boat will now descend and we will have to walk from here on as there's a defensive shield encompassing the town and it won't allow you in unless we get a new awakener's identity token from the guards."

Soon the ship started descending slowly and not long after, even with my 3 meter vision, I was able to see the ground. We both got off the boat and the boat disappeared somewhere. Seeing as how Gerard did not react to it, I deduced that Gerard must have stowed it away somewhere. 

I followed Gerard and we soon reached a booth where I saw two skeletons standing next to standing desks with a feather quill in their hands and what looked to be files on the desks.

The one on the left had a robust frame and back in their human days, I'm sure they must have looked similar to a wrestler or a bouncer had it been back on earth. The one on the right was the complete opposite with their very slim frame and short stature. It took me a few moments before I realized that I was staring and that too at a female undead.

Fortunately, before things got too awkward, Gerard spoke up.

"Hello Joseph, Harriet, can you help me create an identity token for a newly awakened one?"

"Sure Sir Gerard, give us a minute." replied the burly undead named Joseph and turned around opening a drawer in the closet inside the booth. After rummaging through the drawer for a few seconds, he turned back with three things in his hands and pointed toward me.

"Newbie, here is your identity token. The token that you have right now proves your identity as a newly awakened undead vouched for by Dark Knight Gerard. You must have this token on you at all times."

Introducing the identity token which looked more like a bracelet, Joseph handed it over to me and I nodded acknowledging the information while wearing it in my hand. Once I put it on my bony hand, the bracelet shrunk and stuck to my bones around the elbow region.

It stuck to me similar to how shrink-wrap technology worked back on earth however, fortunately, on this body, it did not feel uncomfortable at all.

The next thing Joseph handed to me was what surprised me. It looked like a medieval version of glasses.

Looking at my bewildered expression, Joseph responded "These glasses are a very precious item, especially for newly awakened undead like you. It provides an inferior version of a human-like vision for up to 250 meters.

I'm sure Sir Gerard must have explained the undead vision to you, however, as these glasses replicate human vision, you need to turn your head to look in a different direction as opposed to the undead vision where you can see in every direction within a certain range."

I once again accepted the glasses acknowledging the information as Joseph handed me the third object which was a thin book.

"This book contains some of the important locations within New Haven, some interesting historical facts along with activities and schedule for important events of this year. 

Your soul has been registered in the system and hence in case you happen to lose the identity token or want one of a higher rank, you can get one from this stall by paying the appropriate price. 

Don't worry about it for now since Sir Gerard has paid them for this time."

I nodded and thanked Gerard and continued to equip glasses. As soon as I put them on I felt a blinding light which soon adjusted and finally, I had 2 separate visions one as an undead within my 3-meter diameter range and the other thanks to the magical glasses.

In front of me was a massive wall at least 15 meters tall along with multiple watch towers and just around 30 meters in front of us was a gate that was just as tall and almost 25 meters wide.

Thus I walked toward the settlement to which Gerard referred to as a town, however, in my opinion it was no smaller than some of the largest cities like New York City back home.