A Lich's Shadow

Dark magic was very limiting in several ways when Rino did not have many resources to work with. For the next few hours, he spent it digging up other peoples graves to salvage what he could for the long trip. There wasn't much, but he found one good travelling cape that a forgetful grave robber must have left behind, as well as two more rings capable of storing mana.

Rino washed the dirty cape with water magic, stealing an intact coffin to use as a bucket. Shadow tendrils were dependent on the size of the shadows available around the castor's area. As strange as it sounded, the shadow tendrils were like stretched out dough. They could only stretch so far before it broke. Without knowing the distance limit, Rino overestimated his ability a few times and had to recollect the things he wanted to drag over to his small mud hut. Recollecting bigger items was okay, but when he dropped a pile of fragile bones, he lost a few more pieces than he initially found. It was annoying.

Thankfully, the sun was so strong that his travelling cape dried quickly. Rino spent the two hours waiting for it to dry, polishing his rings and charging them with mana. There wasn't much around, and he didn't want his bony toes to get stuck in weird things, so the lich started weaving loose strands of grass together. A make-shift sandal was better than going barefoot.

It was almost near dusk when Rino was finally ready. He put on the cape, sandals and rings. After wrapping the grey rat's dead body in some tattered cloth he tore from some disturbed corpse, he tucked it into the small hollow space in his skull and started his long walk.

The Gods sighed in relief from above as Rino finally started his journey, walking in the direction the arrow pointed him to.

As the lich walked, he collected small stones and placed them in his poorly made pouch. In case he was attacked, he needed a way to defend himself. A magician's greatest weakness was physical attacks and close-range combat.

Not having a voice was terrible. Rino wished there was some way to project his thoughts into words. Maybe if he thought hard enough, the words he wanted to say could echo through his magic.

Since it was a long walk with nobody to bother him, Rino wasn't afraid to attempt even the silliest ideas. The people who judged him couldn't do anything either. They had to deal with it. This was his golden ticket for a second chance at a better life!

"Can't someone stop him?" a Goddess complained and moved away from the reflecting pond.

Another God appeared miserable and shook his head as Rino continued mental projections. Only, he was sending it the wrong way. If only they haven't used all their divine powers for the day to send him so many messages.

"What should we do to make him shut up?" the suffering Goddess moaned.

Thinking fast, the God in charge of this small world decided to alter the daily quest system.

"We will give him a reward for completing the daily tasks. He wanted to have a voice projection skill, right?"

The Goddess nodded. "Dark magic for newbies or something!"

"Teleportation!" another quipped, and the God in charge frowned.

"We will give him Projection first. Hopefully, he shuts up after this."

Rino, who was happy to explore different methods on his journey, wasn't expecting a new notification.

The daily quest window blurred for a moment, and there was finally a new line.

===

Daily Quest #1

Objective: Relocate 5km to the east and 20km to the south.

Tutorial here.

Reward: Thought Projection Skill.

===

That reward... wasn't this too convenient?! Then again, Rino wasn't going to complain. Having a skill so easily from a daily quest system was like reading a grimoire. With his inability to understand this world's language, he needed this!

As an undead, he felt no physical pain. What better way was there to travel than to use his newly acquired shadow tendrils as a grappling hook to propel himself forward?

Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as he imagined it to be. The first few grapples were fun, but as he picked up speed, Rino found himself flying into the air and possibly crashing on other taller structures he could get away from on time. Thankfully, he had high-speed regeneration. Otherwise, that cracked rib cage would start to become a problem after five consecutive crashes.

As the tree fell behind him, Rino got up from the ground. It was amazing how a skeleton as light as him could create a crater on the ground after falling from twenty meters. The rings were still alright, but his newly washed cape was already dirty. What a pity.

With only seven more hours before midnight, Rino wondered if he would make it on time. With no way to tell how close he was to his destination, he picked himself up again and formulated a new plan.

Normally, he would be flying using wind magic manipulation. However, he was currently terrible at that particular element. The other options were water bubble manipulation, earth manipulation or dark magic manipulation.

Teleportation was a handy skill that he didn't have yet, so that was out. Shadow tendrils were difficult to master, and Rino was not a monkey. He would rather save the time picking himself up from the ground doing it. Besides, he wanted his cape to be clean by the time he got to the new build plot.

If he used earth magic manipulation, his newly woven grass sandals would not survive the friction. Hence, the wisest option was to risk the soaking wet feeling and put himself into a huge water bubble to roll to his destination. Liches didn't need to breathe. He should totally abuse this feature.

The Gods watched as Rino curled up and sat in his conjured water bubble, letting his magic roll him to where he needed to be after the failed attempt at tree hopping. Speechless, they looked at each other.

Was it really so difficult to just walk?