6 The First Quest

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works; all other characters and worlds belong to their respective owners. I'm just playing with them.

Betad by Malcolm Tent, Priapus, Beans, Old man of the mountain, Marethyu, Mike God of Lore

The Guild of Gamers: The Necromancer

Chapter 06: The First Quest

– Coco Adel –

Inviting the new mage and his party was a gamble; mages could be a weird bunch at the best of times. Still, she'd heard of the two sisters and knew that they were good at their jobs, even if Ruby never went anywhere without one of her parents or Aunt with her.

She honestly hadn't known what to expect from Rowan himself, but this wasn't it. Yang dashed in and uppercutted the goblin, sending it flying in a blast of fire as Ruby took aim again, shooting it out of the air with the staff Rowan had made.

Rowan himself calmly 'reloaded' his weapon, uncaring as several goblins tried to rush him. Spinning the 'gun' around his finger with a flourish, he took aim again and fired the icy blue balls of mana, striking the goblins that were trying to attack him.

She wasn't just standing around, blocking a goblin blade with her shield as she knocked it back. She would have kept pressing, but a single arrow pierced its skull as Velvet followed up. She was good at taking advantage of openings they made.

Still, she was feeling rather under-equipped with all the cool magical equipment Rowan and the Black Roses had brought to the party.

"Can you buy me a few seconds? I want to try a new spell," Rowan said, making her nod. She didn't know what he was planning, but she trusted him at this point. 

She couldn't understand the words leaving his mouth, but its effect was clear as a strange, large bell appeared in the clearing. It rang with an unholy sound, and the goblins immediately started to clutch their ears and tried to flee from the noise.

They didn't get far, with both parties taking advantage of the sudden cowardice.

"What was that?" Yatsu asked, making Rowan smile.

"Prelude to Doom, a spell made to break the enemies' morale. I read that Goblins are notoriously cowardly, so I thought I'd try it," Rowan replied, putting his weapon away and patting the heavy tome bound to his side. "It seems especially effective against hordes of weaker-willed enemies."

She'd agree. The goblins had broken immediately, but then, they didn't have a Warlord or Shaman guiding them. Goblins were more cowardly without a leader, so they would have fled as soon as their numbers dropped anyway.

"Nice work," Coco praised, giving him a pat on the backside, which made him jump in surprise. Yatsu just rolled his eyes at her, giving her a warning look. 'Don't fuck with the scary death mage'. Yeah, yeah, she knew. 

"Thanks. How far is it to the dungeon?" Rowan asked, making her pause as she considered how long they'd been walking. 

"We won't make it there today, so we'll be roughing it. We don't want to be travelling at night, and we wouldn't get there till a few hours after sunset," Coco said, making him nod easily. 

Her party was strong, but even she knew better than to travel at night. That was how you ended up dead.

"We'll travel for a couple more hours and find a place to set up camp. There are some good clearings up ahead; lots of parties have moved between the Dungeon and Patch over the years," Coco explained, pausing as she heard some movement before relaxing. Just a deer.

Continuing their travels, she listened to Ruby gush over her new toy, thanking Rowan repeatedly for making it for her. Yang agreed, playing with her spiked gauntlets that Rowan had apparently made.

Huh, he was quite the talented guy, wasn't he?

"Man, my daggers seem boring now," Fox complained, making her grin. She couldn't disagree; her own sword and shield felt kinda lame compared to their weapons. They were enchanted, sure, but with very basic, ever-sharp and durability enchantments.

Rowan was definitely the calm one of their party; it was no wonder he was their leader. Ruby was overly-excitable, and Yang was too carefree to be a leader. Rowan was far more cautious, but then it was his first quest, so she didn't blame him.

Finding a spot to set up camp, she watched with surprise as Rowan pulled far more out of his bag than should have been able to fit into it.

"Okay, what the hell?" Coco asked, watching him pull out several full tents from the bag that was hanging by his waist.

"Oh, my bag? It's a Bag of Holding; it's able to fit far more inside it than it appears and makes everything inside weightless," Rowan explained easily, making her give him an envious look. Well, she had a Yatsu of holding, so it wasn't the end of the world.

"Nice, guess it pays to be a mage. Did you buy it in the capital?" Coco asked, making him shake his head.

"Oh no, I made it," Rowan explained, his tent setting itself up as he seemed to be focusing. Was he moving it with his mind? Something in the back of her mind told her that he was able to do too much. She'd studied magical history, and wasn't each mage given a single school of magic?

Then again, people could also be blessed with a Semblance, so maybe he just had a mix? She was hardly an expert and wasn't going to ask too many questions.

"I'm an Artificer, a magical craftsman, basically. The Bag is probably my greatest creation yet," Rowan continued, getting an angry sound from Ruby before he laughed. "Okay, my greatest creation that isn't a weapon, is that better?"

"That's right, mister, and don't you forget it. My baby is way cooler than a funny bag," Ruby said with her hands on her hips, making him chuckle.

They switched to more casual talk, mostly about what the adventurer life was like, as both parties set up their tents. Her tent was expensive, but she couldn't help but think the two tents Rowan had brought were nicer. Had he made them as well? 

Once he was done setting up the tents (which he explained he was doing with telekinesis as practice) he started setting up a weird pillar of stone that barely reached his waist.

"What's that? Oooh, is that another radiator?" Ruby asked, making them look at it.

"Correct, you complained that the winter nights in Patch got very cold, so I decided to pack one. I call dibs on taking it into my tent though, party leader's privilege," Rowan joked, doing something with it as the pillar started to light up slightly as runes began to glow.

The effect was clear as the cold air started to heat up to a more cosy temperature, leaving their campsite a haven of warmth in the chilly forest. It wasn't quite winter yet, but it would start soon. 

"Aww, but you brought the heated blankets as well, right?" Ruby asked, making Coco blink. Man, they were making this whole roughing-it thing seem like a luxury as Rowan pulled out a large fluffy blanket and tossed it towards Ruby.

It didn't make it, Yang grabbing it first as the two sisters started to squabble and fought over it.

Rowan's attempts to point out that he'd packed one for each of them fell on deaf ears, the sisters choosing to fight over the single blanket even as Rowan shrugged and put the other two down, one inside his tent.

She rolled her eyes at how Fox was hugging the magical warmth pillar, eyeing the blankets maliciously. He had always been a baby when it came to cold temperatures, but his dark skin made it clear he wasn't from around here, and was used to warmer temperatures.

"I've set up a circle of noise and scent suppression around our site, so no monsters should be able to hear or smell us," Rowan said to her, once again making her eyebrow raise.

"Nice, we'll probably need it between those two and Fox," Coco laughed, making him nod with a fond smile. He was definitely the quiet type himself, already sitting down with one of his magical blankets wrapped around him. "Yatsu, you have the first watch. I'll take second."

"No worries," Yatsu said, finishing setting up their two tents. 

"I'll take third; I've never been a big sleeper anyway," Rowan offered, making her nod as they worked out who was taking each watch. 

As they turned in for the night, she watched Rowan move a short distance from the camp and reach into his bag again. Her eyes widened as he extracted an entire goblin corpse from it, placing it down on the ground with a slight frown of disgust at the smell.

She didn't know what he was doing, but even his party seemed just as confused as they watched him from the comfort of the pillar, which she may have to find a way to steal, given the fact that winter would soon be upon them. 

His magic caused the flesh to peel away, rotting at a rapid rate until he was left with just a skeleton. Thankfully, his magic seemed to be keeping the smell away as he got to work. Her eyes widened as the bones began to move in response to his chanting, and they all watched as the skeleton rose to its feet, everyone grabbing their weapons until he waved them off.

Giving it the rusty scimitar one of the goblins had been carrying, the skeleton stood there obediently awaiting orders. So this was the power of a death mage? As he repeated the process, she wondered how many of the bodies he'd grabbed.

– Rowan Blackwood –

As five goblin skeletons stand guard around our campsite, I lay in my tent with a smile under the warmth of my extremely cosy quilt. It was a good test; Coco and her party didn't respond too negatively to my undead creations, and Ruby and Yang trusted me enough not to panic.

As I try to drift off, I hear a quiet sound coming from the direction of the other tents, specifically Coco's. It's hard to work out at first, but as I strain my ears a little harder, I pick up the sound of quiet moaning, obviously muffled. 

Curiosity and temptation fill me, and with a cast, I shed my corporeal form and astrally project myself. In my testing, I was invisible to the human eye when I was astrally projecting, so I float through my tent and spot Yatsuhashi sitting at the edge of the camp, right next to the radiator, which I had decided to leave out for him.

He doesn't particularly respond to the sounds coming from his leader's tent, and my curiosity can't be stopped as I float close to the tent and peek my head through. I blame Summer; she's a bad influence.

Utterly naked (though laying on an enchanted blanket I loaned her), Coco muffles her mouth with one hand as her other holds Velvet's head between her legs, one leg locked around the bunny-girls head.

Velvet is equally naked, except for her collar, which marks her as a slave of the Adel family, and it's an undeniably hot scene. I'm tempted to peek into their minds with Telepathy to see just how willing Velvet is as the bunny girl services her owner but I decide against it. I haven't got enough practice with Telepathy to say for certain that I won't be detected.

Slipping back out, I check on the others. Fox is already asleep, and so is Ruby, as I check on my party. Yang is awake, tossing and turning as she cuddles with her sister under the heated blanket. 

Deciding to take a look around, I don't go too far from our site. I just wander around and look out for any trespassers, but the forest is mostly quiet and before long, I'm back in my body. I have my watch in a few hours, so I don't want to stay awake and be tired when it's my turn after all.

– Later –

Sitting by the radiator, I dim the lightstones so I can see into the darkness of the forest better. Being on watch is a boring task, but that's where the risk lies. If you let your mind wander, you could miss potential threats lurking in the shadows.

Fortunately, I have five skeletons patrolling the camp, so even if I don't notice anything, they might. Skeletons are the ideal starter minion for a Necromancer, and the fact that I can use monster corpses takes away one of my main concerns about being a Necromancer. I won't need to plunder any graves if I can just turn the enemy against themselves.

Skeletons don't need to sleep; they don't need sustenance, and even fatal wounds can be shrugged off as long as there is enough left for my magic to animate them.

"Hey, Rowan," Yang says, drawing my attention to where she's coming out of her tent, still wrapped up in the blanket.

"Couldn't sleep?" I ask, making her shrug.

"I always have trouble resting on quests, too excited to just sleep. Thought I'd keep you company," Yang says, sitting on the log I've been using as a seat. "How's the watch going?"

"So far, all quiet. Maybe my undead friends are keeping the usual suspects at bay," I say with a shrug, watching the skeletons walk past. She sat right next to me and moves the blanket over both of us, shoulder to shoulder, as she grins.

"Gotta say, camping is a hell of a lot easier with you around. Weird monsters to keep watch, magic blankets and super-bags," Yang trails off, bumping her shoulder against mine.

"Magic has its advantages," I agree easily, plans flashing through my mind. "I plan to make our travels as comfortable as possible."

"Appreciate it; I love the travelling and the fighting, but spending a winter night huddled up in some shitty tent freezing my tits off isn't my idea of a good time," Yang laughs, giving me a smile. "Still, you might have lost out. Here I was, planning on cuddling up to you for warmth and you went and made heated blankets instead."

"I'm sure I'll live," I say calmly, not responding to her teasing. She is a lot like Summer, but despite her flirting, I don't think she's as easy as her mother. 

"Mhmm, I'll just have to find another reason to get nice and cosy with you. Did I ever thank you for my new gauntlets?" Yang asks, giving me a flirty smile. "Hoping to make me and Ruby pay off our debts to you in a very special way? How sneaky, giving us these amazing toys when only you can supply the stones for them… the first hit is free, but the rest we have to pay for?"

"You did, and as I told you, there's no debt between party members," I say with a sigh, making her giggle. "And I'm an Artificer, not a drug dealer."

"Please, Ruby is more addicted to her new toy than any drug," Yang laughs, making me nod in agreement. She's burning through her runestones far faster than I expected, but I stocked up with extras for a reason. "Not that I can talk; blowing stuff up with my hands is very enjoyable."

"I had to pick the goblins you didn't fight; you broke too many bones for the others to be useful," I say, making her look smug.

"Not my fault they can't take a little roughhousing," Yang says with a shrug, her hand coming back down on my leg. I give her a warning look as she rubs my thigh, but she just gives me a teasing smile. 

I'm not easily distracted, much to her annoyance. Maybe before I met Summer, I'd have been easier to tease, but Yang doesn't get to me as we chat about future plans. Yang wants to see the world. Apparently, she's never left Vale before, but she wants to see all of the Kingdoms eventually.

Her descriptions of Mistral make it sound like it's almost Grecian, with some of the monsters sounding very familiar: Minotaurs, Centaurs, Hydras. 

With her company, my watch passes quickly; before long, Velvet relieves me. She's blushing slightly, her clothes a bit of a mess, and Yang whistles as she comes out of Coco's tent, making Velvet's blush grow deeper. I don't tease her; her position as a slave makes me a little uncomfortable since she might not have actually had a choice in her liaisons.

I leave the blanket with her, making Yang whine slightly that it was hers but she doesn't argue as the cute bunny-girl thanks me, seeming surprised as she bundles up. It's not quite sunrise yet, and I decide to get a couple more hours of sleep before we head into the dungeon, where the true quest will begin.

"Really, Yang?" I ask as she enters my tent.

"Well, someone gave away my blanket, and Ruby is like an octopus when she's asleep; sharing a blanket with her is just asking to get suffocated," Yang argues, lying down as she slips under the blanket with a smug smile. "Funny, I say I'd have cuddled up with you if you didn't make the blankets, then you give mine away…"

Not rising to her taunting, I just roll over so we're spooning and close my eyes. I can't deny it is hard to get to sleep with her ass pressing against my crotch, but I don't push things. Does she realise that a single casting of Normality could have me balls deep in the ass she's wiggling against me, and she wouldn't even see anything odd about it?

Oddly enough, my refusal to react to her teasing seems to work better than outright flirting back as she cuddles against me, my hand around her waist. I can't quite get my mind wrapped around Yang; she flirts a lot, and given how quickly Summer jumped into bed with me, I considered that maybe sex was just more casual here…

But her mind reveals her caution; she's not ready for me to push, and her surface thoughts reveal her inexperience. Telepathy is useful already, I can't wait to get it trained up.

Drifting off, I can't deny I enjoy having her body pressed against mine. 

Waking up, I blink and almost jump back at how close Yang is, violet eyes right in front of my face.

"Mornin~" Yang yawns, sitting up and stretching, the small top she's wearing fighting for its life against her breasts. "Sleep well?"

"Like a baby," I admit, making her grin.

"Aww, did little baby Rowan like cuddling up with Mama Yang?" Yang asks, making me sigh as I sit up myself. "Don't worry, I won't judge if you want to call me mommy."

"I'll pass, thank you," I say with a roll of my eyes. She doesn't stop, does she? "Come on, time to get to work."

"Meh, you're no fun," Yang whines, seeing me not play along with her.

"I'm plenty of fun; just ask your mother," I retort, making her snort. "Besides, I'm the one giving you girls all these fun toys. I'm your magical sugar daddy, so if anything, you should be the one calling me daddy."

"Whatever you say, Daddy ~" Yang agrees easily, and I'm well aware that I'm playing flirt-chicken with someone far better at this than me. I doubt she'll back down anytime soon. "We really should get up, though; the dungeon is still a bit of a walk from here."

Yang has been there before, but she's quite an experienced adventurer, unlike me and Ruby. I asked them about it before, and Ruby hasn't been in a dungeon before, but Yang has several times (never past the first three floors, though).

Walking to the entrance of the tent, I take a chance and give her a light spank as she passes me. She jumps, yelping slightly in surprise, but the look she gives me isn't exactly angry.

"Down, boy, we have work to do, remember?" Yang scolds, but I just give her a smirk.

"Then get out and let me get changed in peace; off you go," I reply, having changed into my sleepwear. I put Summer's money to good use, making sure to get everything I'd need for several days out in the wilds. 

I can tell she's considering teasing more, but Ruby's voice makes her shrug and give me one last smirk as she leaves.

Getting changed quickly, I leave the tent and start packing everything away with a smile. My Skeletons lasted the night; they should last basically indefinitely as long as I'm feeding them a trickle of magic, but I am new to this, so mistakes are expected.

Coco gives me a thumbs up, seeing Yang leaving my tent, but I just raise an eyebrow and nod toward Velvet, making her shrug carelessly. 

"We should set off soon. The Dungeon is more active at night, and we want to be out before sunset," Coco explains, making me nod. "We shouldn't be in there long; the reports say the troll is on the second floor, so we should be in and out in a couple of hours."

Trolls are known for their regeneration, and I think I can do a thing or two about that. I still have some reading to do while we walk, though; I didn't quite get the hang of the spell last night.

"No worries, I'll pack up our stuff nice and quickly," I say, getting straight to work. Yang is teasing Ruby about something but they're just out of earshot for me to hear. I do see Ruby kick Yang's leg, but beyond an annoyed 'Yang', I don't hear their conversation.

Packing up quickly, it's not long until we're on the move again. My skeletons follow behind us; they'll make good shock troops since our party doesn't really have a tank. Yang is good up front, but she's more of a bruiser who thrives in the thick of it rather than a real tank.

I should grab some shields for my skeletons; they'll be useful for just soaking up damage. 

We do get into a couple of fights on the way there, some large wolves and another small pack of goblins attacking us, but we make short work of the attackers. Coco's party is effective; even without any true magical gear they make this look easy.

It's not long until we're at the entrance of the dungeon, a stone structure with a large open archway that goes down some stairs. It looks like it was built, but I've been told they're naturally occurring; how odd.

"Any advice for a first-time dungeon delver?" I ask, making Coco grin.

"Don't worry, the first levels of this dungeon are infamously easy. It's why so many adventurers come here to get some experience. Goblins, slimes, maybe the occasional hobgoblin or bugbear. Sometimes, they have wargs, but that's rare to see in the safer levels. Normally, you wouldn't see any trolls until around the tenth level, which is why we need to kill it before some beginners wander into it. Just look out for traps; goblins are sneaky little bastards and love their traps," Coco explains, making me nod. "My party will go in first. Fox's semblance makes him great for sensing traps, and he's our scout. You three watch our backs; monsters love ambushing you."

Agreeing, we start to descend into the stone labyrinth. From my research, different dungeons have different designs but this one takes the form of a large stone maze. Lots of hidden passageways, traps and dead-ends.

The dungeons also shift semi-regularly, so you can't map them out. It's a game of chance to try to find the stairway down, but in our case, we need to clear each floor to find the troll. Can't risk leaving it behind and heading deeper without knowing we've missed it.

As long as we don't stay here too long, we shouldn't need to worry about it reshaping while we're inside it. 

Travelling through the first floor, between Coco and Yang I barely have anything to do. Coco is good, and Yang immediately crushes anything that tries to ambush us. 

We do have a minor issue with a green slime, which is very resistant to physical damage… but Ruby just shoots it several times, which fixes that issue real quickly.

"Ugh, slimes are the worst. Be careful; they'll melt your weapons, and they spray a mist that makes your clothes rot and your armour rust," Coco warns, giving the green puddle an annoyed look. "Plus, they're a bitch to actually damage, for us anyway. Looks like you two have this set. You two are on slime duty; keep an eye on the ceiling."

Ruby just grins as she puts away her staff.

Her warning is well-placed because we barely turn the next corner before I spot another slime hanging from the ceiling, waiting to drop on whoever passes under it. A few shots make it drop, and it's dead before it can even reform from the fall. 

I do need to get my hands on a proper melee weapon of my own. Honestly, I should have done that before I left, but I was a little enamoured with my new toy. I did buy a dagger, but it's a last resort.

Aside from my lack of training besides 'stick them with the pointy end', it's also not great or enchanted. I could probably make a better one and enchant it to actually be useful; this one is more for utility than combat.

Watching Coco shield-bash a goblin, I admire the way her party capitalises on the opening. Yatsu is basically always there to delete whatever she stuns with that massive greatsword of his, or Fox to backstabs them.

That's assuming either can get there before Velvet headshots them from the back of the party. She fights at a distance, but she's scarily accurate, and her hearing is amazing. She's heard enemies coming long before anyone has been able to see them.

"I can hear the troll," Velvet says, making them all turn to her. "It sounds distant; I think it's at the start of the second floor."

"Got it, good job, Vel," Coco says, giving Velvet a pat on the backside, which makes her jump and blush. "Come on, we don't want it to get away."

Heading the direction Velvet indicated, we head down to the next floor and immediately I pick up the stench, which is a good sign that we are in the right place. Trolls are notoriously smelly, and Velvet's ears twitch more as she points in a particular direction.

I get the feeling Coco isn't taking this particularly seriously as she heads down towards the sound of heavy footsteps, not a hint of worry as she turns the corner. Fox grabs her and pulls her back, just in time for several darts to shoot out from the wall from a trap Coco had clearly triggered. Fox just sighs in long-suffering annoyance as Coco laughs and rubs her neck.

A roar makes us all pause, seeing the large troll bumbling towards us with a large club in its meaty hand. 

"Watch our backs; we have this," Coco shouts to us, making me nod with a serious frown. The roar has drawn some attention, even I can hear the sounds of footsteps approaching us.

Several goblins come charging towards us, but they are met with our horde. Skeletons and goblins clash while I focus on casting my spells. Even now, I can see the troll's wounds starting to heal, even as Coco's party surrounds it and seemingly handles it.

I send a Ray of Enfeeblement towards the troll, I'm not sure how effective it will be, but it should at least slow it down a little.

A 'Prelude to Doom' sends the goblins scrambling again; it is more effective when the victims are close to the undead. My skeletons descend upon the goblins as they try and flee, slaughtering them with ease. 

Goblins are good opponents for me; their natural cowardice makes them easy targets for Prelude to Doom. It's a spell made to demoralise entire armies, and it does have a rather high mana cost. I'm working on learning Cause Despair, which is a more targeted version which has a similar but more powerful effect in a small area. 

My grimoire also has the runes for the Cruel enchantment, which makes weapons deal more damage to enemies with low morale. It's a nice tool, especially if I am going to be using other spells that are made to break the monsters' will. Equipping the skeletons with weapons made to deal serious damage to fleeing opponents could be a fun combo.

I take several shots, both at the troll when the goblins are fleeing and the goblins when they are attacking. My magi-tech revolver is effective against the goblins, but it lacks the punch to really hurt the troll. 

As Yatsu manages to slice its stomach open, I decide now is the time. Throwing wide my hands, I cast my new spell for the first time. 

Necrotic Corruption

Causing the eventual death and decay of the target, this spell inflicts a slow-moving necromantic necrosis, preventing healing. The rot inflicted cannot be treated by mundane means and will initially afflict the extremities, creeping inwards. 

The effect is immediately noticeable; the formerly healing wound starts to grow black and stops closing. It's slow, the spread of the blackened flesh moving at a snail's pace, but the important part is that it isn't healing anymore. 

This spell is technically a one-hit kill if you don't have access to magical healing since the necrosis will slowly spread through the body until it finally rots the organs, so I'll need to be careful with it. I can stop the spread, but I can't heal the damage once it has already been done.

– Velvet –

Rowan was powerful; that much was clear.

Watching the black rot spread through the troll's body, she made a note to never cross Rowan. He seemed like a nice man, even to a Faunus like her, but she didn't want to find out what would happen if she angered him.

Rowan focused on the goblins again, his party easily handling those drawn by the sounds of fighting, and Coco was having an easy time dealing with the troll thanks to both whatever that ray had done, making the troll slower than usual, and now the rot spreading through the goblin's body.

Coco actually managed to block the club with her shield; the troll had weakened so much by now that Coco could just shrug off its attacks. A single arrow pierced its eyeball, making it roar again, enraged, but her party wouldn't let it get close to her as Yatsu slashed at its arm, causing it to drop the club.

Fox was targeting its legs, slicing and dicing the tendons, making it hard for the ugly monster to move. Especially since whatever wounds they made quickly became infected with that same rot, preventing the troll's infamous regeneration from working on them.

They'd done this too many times for it to be a problem, especially with Rowan's magic and the other party defending them from any ambushers, and before long, the troll fell with a loud crash. 

Coco didn't hesitate, stabbing it right in the forehead; you always needed to make sure to finish a troll off unless you wanted the thing to get right back up afterwards. 

"All done?" Rowan asked, reloading his weapon as he looked over the dead goblins. Coco nodded, giving him a grin.

"Yup, nice work with whatever those spells were. Wish it was always so easy to kill trolls," Coco said, kicking the corpse with a smirk. 

"A Ray of Enfeeblement and Necrotic Corruption, death is what I specialise in, so stopping someone from healing wasn't hard," Rowan chuckled, looking over the corpse. 

"You're planning on taking this body in your bag?" Coco asked, making him nod.

"Considering it, but I don't think it'd fit. I have a lot of space, but it's not infinite. Not yet, anyway. If I want to try and reanimate that thing, I'll need to do it here," Rowan said, rubbing his chin.

"Go for it; we can watch your back while you work," Coco offered, making him smile as Yang patted him on the back.

"Ooh, pet troll," Yang said, watching Rowan get to work.

"Potential pet skeletal troll, we'll see," Rowan muttered, getting to work as he started to rot the flesh the same way he had on the goblins. It was a much slower process because trolls had a lot of flesh to rot.

The smell was awful, making her nose twitch and drawing several monsters, but it was worth it as she watched the massive skeleton start to rise. It was an intimidating sight, the troll's corpse standing there menacingly, but it didn't move until Rowan commanded it to join the skeletons.

"Is it safe?" Ruby asked, making him nod easily.

"It is; it doesn't have any soul, and it's not capable of independent thought. it's just a reanimated set of bones," Rowan agreed, giving the giant a pat. "So, are we done here?"

"Yup, we've done our job. I think it's safe to say we can prove we killed it since you're bringing the big bastard home with us," Coco laughed, poking the giant in the leg.

"Now we just have to hope that we don't get attacked by the guards when we get back," Rowan said with a shrug.

"Heh, it'll be fine," Coco waved off. "Mages are basically royalty; if you tell some country-bumpkin guards to fuck off, they'll listen."

"Perhaps, but I'd rather not cause a scene. I'll probably have to go on ahead to warn them," Rowan sighed before smiling. "Worth it, though. What's a Necromancer without his horde?"

Heading back up to the entrance, they made their way outside and looked up. It was already starting to get late since the sun was starting to set earlier and earlier for winter. They'd have to camp soon.

Her ears twitched, picking up the quiet sound of the underbrush being disturbed, she turned to look in the direction. The sound stopped shortly afterwards, and with no monster in sight, she figured it was just some animal.

Forests were normally noisy, it was when they were quiet that you needed to worry.

— Bonus Scene — Fran

Lurking outside the dungeon, she considered how she was going to go about this. Velvet was with her owner, and even worse, she had been branded, so Velvet would be forced to fight to protect this 'Coco'.

Two parties of adventurers, including one mage, might be too much for her to take on, but she could count on the predictability of humans. They'd want to celebrate their victory, and they'd need to camp out again since the trip to Patch was too long for them to make before nightfall.

Drawing monsters to their campsite wouldn't be hard, the issue came with both killing off the adventurers while keeping Velvet safe, all while Velvet tried to protect the one holding her leash. Not to mention the skeletons that were under the command of the mage.

The two parties headed back in the direction they'd come and she waited. She didn't need to chase them anytime soon, she knew where they were going and they weren't exactly hiding their tracks. 

She'd been one of the White Fang's best trackers during her time with them, so following behind them after the sun went down wouldn't be a challenge. She needed more time to plan how she was going to take these bastards down anyway, especially given their undead following.