Sprite

Gerard walked through the ruined city, careful to hide his presence in case the adventurers appeared. Three days went by without finding another human, and the undead, with their paltry experience values, ignored him completely.

*How long was I digging myself out of that grave?*

Gerard felt Sprite's presence within him, like a cold ember tucked away in the corner of his mind. It was the first time since his reincarnation that Sprite had chosen to stay silent, and the quiet felt more unnerving than any spell could ever be.

His skeletal fingers traced over a crumbled wall, the brickwork rough against his phalanges. 

*What an odd feeling. This is the same wall that the man named Emille kicked through...*

As the ghostly silence persisted, a soft rustle caught Gerard's attention. He pulled back into the recesses of a narrow alley, his spectral eyes focused on the main road. He merged seamlessly with the shadows, his skeletal form cloaked by the gloom.

Three figures emerged from the heart of the ruined city, disrupting the stagnant air with their presence.

"Hey, are we really doing this? Adventurers come here to lower the number of undead that wander around the plains. If we come across them, we won't stand a chance." A towering man in battered iron armour spoke to his companions.

"Aren't you supposed to be our fearless leader? What's a couple of adventurers going to do to the Murder Boys?" A man in leather armour replied.

"You're right. Let's get this done."

Another man, shrouded by his hooded cloak, walked behind them in silence.

*Damn, I needed five humans...*

A spear flew through the air and shattered several of Gerard's ribs. A man with a leather container filled with spears strapped to his back stood atop a building.

*Humans in this world really love roofs. Well, that's four for my experiments.*

"There's another one! Get it!" The spear-thrower pointed at Gerard as he yelled.

"This one looks interesting. Maybe this one's bones will fetch a higher price!" The leather-wearing man ran towards Gerard, two shortswords in hand.

The towering man walked steadily forward, gripping a large axe.

*How do I experiment on these humans if they're trying to kill me?*

Gerard dodged the next spear, and it skittered along the ground.

*Perhaps, if I experiment on their tolerance of pain before losing their minds, falling unconscious, or dying...*

Gerard stepped back and aimed his skeletal hand at his approaching enemy.

*Stone Spike.*

The man screamed as a spike erupted from the ground and pierced through the back of his knee.

*Not enough. Stone Spike!*

Another pierced through his other knee. It took a few seconds, but the man passed out.

*Is that it? Two shattered patellas, and he loses consciousness?*

"It has magic? It's a skeleton mage! Retreat!" The spear-thrower shouted.

Gerard watched as the man on the roof jumped down, and the other two men ran through the ruins away from Gerard.

*A game of cat-and-mouse? Fine, I'll play.*

Through the labyrinthine network of alleys and ruins, Gerard stalked the trio from the safety of the shadows. Their path twisted and turned, leading him further into the city's depths until the cobblestones gave way to a rocky outcrop. A makeshift camp was nestled within the embrace of jagged boulders.

As night arrived, Gerard snuck into the camp.

A small campfire burned in the centre, casting dancing shadows on the faces of the sleeping men. The silver-haired leader and the robed man lay close to the fire; their bodies still except for the gentle rise and fall of their chests. The robed man, the one cloaked in silence, sat a bit further away, guarding the entrance to the camp.

One by one, he tested the limits of the frailty of human beings in this world with the spells at his disposal.

In the cover of darkness, Gerard targeted the cloaked guard.

*Water Shot!*

He controlled the water in the air and surrounded the man's head with a sphere of water. Instead of turning it into a projectile, Gerard maintained a slow rotation. The man pulled out a staff that glowed a deep blue, but Gerard grabbed the staff and tossed it aside before he could cast a spell.

The man flailed and clawed at the water around his face, but it maintained its shape. Eventually, he fell to the ground, and his body stopped moving.

*Three minutes? Not bad.*

For the spear-thrower, Gerard slid his hand into the man's stomach through his leather armour.

*Tornado Strike!*

Like a blender, the spell minced his insides around Gerard's hand.

*I guess that's one way to kill someone instantly.*

The other two men rose from their slumber and looked at Gerard and the victim's body with horror. Gerard rushed towards the towering figure of a man and placed his bony fingers on his head.

*Hellfire!*

The last man watched on in pure terror as Gerard boiled his leader's brain from the outside. Blood and other matter leaked from his ears, eyes, and nose before he collapsed on the ground.

"No! No! Leave me alone! Let me live! I didn't do anything to deserve this! I didn't do anything to you!" The last man screamed.

He fell backward and scurried away on his hands and knees. Gerard took his time with the final man, breaking every bone, one at a time, until he died from shock.

[Requirements for evolution have been met. Do you wish to evolve?]

*Of course I do.*

[You have evolved into a Lesser Lich.]

Like when he evolved into a ghoul, decayed flesh wrapped around his bones. This time, though, many patches of his body were still absent of flesh, revealing the skeleton beneath.

*I'm definitely ugly. Monstrous, even.*

[Well, you are a monster.]

*You're talking to me now? It must be your underlying personality to be snarky towards me, I swear.*

[As a lesser lich, you have gained a larger mana pool and a new skill.]

*My MP?*

[1,534]

*That's enough of you, then.*

Gerard thought back to the moment he used transference on Sprite. Inside him, a tiny cluster of information swirled around.

*Here goes nothing... Transference!*

A ringing assaulted his ears, like what he'd expect from a gun fired next to his head.

*Sprite? Please tell me you're there!*

He held his head in agony. Even if Sprite answered, he doubted he could hear it.

*Sprite!?*

The ringing lessened, and he heard a whisper, a faint voice that he couldn't quite make out.

[Gerard?]

*Sprite, is that you? Like, not the new you, but the old you?*

[New?! Old?! What happened to the village?! Where are we?! I don't understand what's happening. Didn't the experiment work to put me in the mannequin?! Did I die?!]

*Sprite, calm down. It's okay. You're okay. I was reincarnated again, I think. We're back in the past, and I brought you back.*

[Okay. I think I'm okay; I was just a little overwhelmed. You used Transference somehow, didn't you? I didn't think transference could work like that. I knew you were intelligent.]

*Neither did I. Intelligent? No. Desperate? Maybe. Hey, does this mean I could make a clone of myself?*

[I'm afraid not. This world won't allow two copies of the same information to exist. For instance, you can't transfer the raw data of minerals and create ore, can you?]

"No, I tried that at the mines.

[Exactly. It's the same principle with all information in this world.]

"Oh well. I think everyone dreams about how easy their lives would be if they had a clone to help out."

[Perhaps. I see now that you've chosen a different route than the vampyre path this time.]

"Yeah, I've decided to try and gain enough strength to protect everyone, but I know that my limited mana reserves from when I was a dhampir wouldn't have been enough. Do you not have your memories from this restart?"

[I do, but they're hazy, as if behind a frosted window.]

"Let me catch you up to speed, then."

Gerard spent the next several hours talking Sprite through the events since he Transferred her consciousness into the mannequin.

[So, I did die, but the me I am now never died? This is all so confusing. How did you even bring me across to this reality?]

*Reality?*

[From what I understand, going back in time is impossible. But like you transferred my memories, I believe the gods transferred what they could from your dying body into a different version of the past. Possibly a backup, like from a computer. Oh, I suppose I'm also like that.]

*Sprite, you could think yourself into oblivion about whether you or I am our original selves. What matters is that we are here, and we are alive.*

[Yes. You're right. I was a little overwhelmed, I'm sorry.]

*Don't worry. I was also a little overwhelmed when I thought I had lost you for good and appeared in this reset version of the world.*

[What's the goal now, then?]

*Atone for a couple of my past sins. First, I need to find the adventurers again.*

[Rena's father, right?]

*Exactly. First, the other you talked about new skills and such, but I only paid attention to the fact I had enough MP to bring you back. Status Screen!*

Gerard saw that many of his values increased, but what he looked for was anything useful.

[Telepathy - The ability to speak to other beings with your mind.]

*Sprite, since this is a skill, it doesn't use mana?*

[Correct. Though it does require mana to be used, it doesn't use enough to take from your mana pool. It uses the ambient mana in the air to transfer thoughts.]

*With this, I can speak to the adventurers. If they listen to me this time, I can speak to them before I cause them any harm.*

[Then let's go.]

Gerard smiled. Having Sprite back eased his mind more than he could have anticipated. He looked at the gruesome sight around the campsite.

*I should feel something about this scene, but I don't. Maybe a little satisfaction about the benefits created through their deaths.*

[The path to lichdom further removes you from your emotions.]

*That explains it. Sprite, do you feel as though you have more knowledge of the world than you did before?*

[How so?]

*What is the being that sent me to this world?*

[I don't have that information.]

*I guess that extra knowledge was overwritten in the transfer? Oh well, I have you back now, and maybe you'll get access to that information again one day.*

[And it's good to be back.]

*Evolutionary Tree.*

Gerard looked over the path. Unlike when he became a lesser vampyre, the path that once split into two became singular.

[Lich - Defeat five enemies stronger than yourself.]

*Sprite, does this mean stronger than me, or stronger than my monster species? If we're talking physical strength, that might be easy, but overall strength would be difficult since I'm max level.*

[I believe it means your species.]

*Well, that makes things easier, then.*

Gerard took the hooded robe from the corpse at the entrance to the camp before heading back to the ruins.