“Could you please teach necromancy to my students instead?”

Yomi’s question echoed inside my hollow head and it gave me quite a headache. The sorcerer clasped her hands and had expectant face since I was at the top of the hierarchy of the undead. The wonders that I would give, the secrets I would reveal, and the mastery which I would uphold - all for her to see.

As a senior of Yomi, how could I say no?

Like this, of course:

“No,” I replied with my arms crossed.

“Eeeeh? Why, Senior Archlich? Pleeease, I beg of you! My necromancy knowledge is so weak that just after four lessons, I’m running out of things to teach!” Yomi threw herself onto the floor and grabbed onto my leg.

“Just after four?! Just how basic is your grasp on necromancy?!” I retorted.

Mauri approached from the side then answered, “To be honest, we try to pad for time between lessons by telling them to experiment and give different results. The idea to beat musclemancy with necromancy was only recent, so we’re not wholly prepared.”

“What? How recent have you two been doing this?” I asked.

“Not so long ago. If you have to compare my necromancy skills to other schools of magic, I would say that I’m only Advanced level…” Yomi replied while fiddling with her thumbs on the floor.

“And you?” I turned to Mauri and asked.

“I’m a spirit. I can’t do necromancy.” She shrugged.

“What’s going on here? I sensed near-divine spell…” a new arrival called out to us, seemingly annoyed. It was my lamp-... I mean newest companion, Satel, in her dryad body.

“Yo,” I greeted with a wave.

“Shouldn’t you be on your way to the necromancy class or whatever?” Satel scratched her head in confusion.

I raised Ellysa, who was still unconscious, and replied, “Yeah, well, this thing popped out of nowhere.”

Satel squinted her eyes then was taken aback. “I don’t know who that is, but I could tell that it’s a very powerful vampire. What were they called? Vampire Lords?”

I waved Ellysa whilst still grabbing her by the back of her neck. “This useless garbage is Ellysa, the current queen of the dwarves. And yes, she’s a vampire lady, one of the strongest vampire in the West Continent.”

“The dwarven queen is a vampire?!” Satel exclaimed.

“Well, that’s that. I’m busy right now, so could you please take care of this thing? Tie her onto a chair in my room or something,” I said as I casually tossed the vampire onto Satel.

“Don’t just throw one of the most powerful undead around like some unwanted laundry…” Mauri retorted tiredly.

“I knew I shouldn’t have left my room.” Satel sighed then said, “I suppose this vampire’s my problem until you return, Boss.”

Almost as soon as Satel left, a new figure appeared. It was a rather large figure, too.

“Who dares make a ruckus in the domain of I, Vakasa of the Darkness?!” Lard sprang out of the shadow and hopped, but stumbled and fell.

After fixing himself up, he coughed then said, “Nobody saw that.”

“Quit it, fatty. You’re making a bigger ruckus than us,” I jeered. Tapping my chin, I had an idea. “Hey, Lard, want to join a necromancy class with me?”

“Would I!” Lard immediately switched from awkwardness to full of enthusiasm in one sentence.

“W-Wait, is that really fine?” Yomi asked.

“What isn’t fine? He already knows I’m an undead anyway.” I shrugged.

“Other than that, y-you’re still attending my class? B-but that’ll be embarrassing to show my meager skills to someone of phenomenal abilities…” Yomi muttered.

“That doesn’t matter. Lead the way,” I ordered.

Yomi groaned then got up before leading us out of the academy grounds. She started chatting with Mauri while I followed behind with Lard.

It was the dead of night, yet the sorcerer city looked like it was full of life. Moving platforms flew around, seemingly rotating roads exchanged positions, floating orbs of lights swam across the night sky, and large old towers swayed back and forth slowly - every direction gave something new to see.

Statues which were unmoving at day now wandered the streets, managing the menial jobs of their organic masters. Street sweepers, laundry washers, and even guardsmen now filled the streets, all of them statues. After all, Cahalot was also a city of efficiency, working day and night.

Sorcerers in messy attire moved individually across the busy night street, holding bundles of scrolls, and not a single word was uttered among the busy sorcerers. Even the statues socialized more with each other than the mages do with each other.

“You know, for all the dangerous things in this world, it truly is a fantasy,” Lard commented as he looked over Cahalot.

“It’s a fantasy to you, kid. It’s reality for me,” I remarked.

“Lucky you, huh?” he replied, his eyes still glued at the floating orbs of light.

“Hey, you two,” I called out at Yomi and Mauri, then asked, “did someone teach you necromancy?”

“Unfortunately, no. We only found some old tomes about them,” Yomi replied while shaking her head.

“Isn’t there some well known necromancer around or something? There’s got to be some strong teachers of necromancy out there,” I speculated.

“Necromancy is looked down upon in most places. Even the liches that roam the lands are hunted by the paladins of the Path. So in most cases, there’s no good spot to learn necromancy from…” Yomi paused then remembered something. “Although, there are two places that one could learn necromancy without repercussions.”

“And those two places are?” I raised my head.

“The Vallen Empire…”

Those disgusting xenophiles!

“And the Undead Republic of Gravia,” Yomi finished her sentence.

I shook my head to make sure I wasn’t hearing things and asked, “The what?”

“It’s the only undead nation that was established in the Continent. As far as I heard, they are one of the biggest opponent against the raging demon armies south of the Continent,” Yomi answered.

Oh, right! I forgot about the demon armies. Well, not like the heroes are prepared to face them anyway.

“Tell me more about this undead nation,” I urged as we continued our journey.

“Gravia used to be a massive graveyard for armies. One day, a rogue lich founded a republic there and stood fast against all oppositions. Gravians don’t adhere to the strict hierarchy that most undead follows,” Yomi explained.

“What? So what do they follow?” I asked.

“They believe in equality. Leadership is voted amongst the populace,” Yomi answered as she looked back at me.

“What? You can’t just vote for a lich!” I retorted.

Yomi shrugged then answered, “I’ve never been there so you’ll have to visit that place yourself, senior.”

“Hmpf. We’ll see to that later,” I responded.

After going through a series of zig-zags and alleyways, we finally reached a dead end. The end wall was covered in small strips of tattered paper and it was marked with a large red ‘X’.

“Ehm…Before we continue, I must warn you that we are going to the deep ends of Cahalot. Most of the sorcerers which deviated from the norm were banished to the lower levels of Cahalot, so…” Yomi coughed then coughed.

“My powers can annihilate anyone foolish enough to slight me,” I assured.

“Mine too! My power is exceeding powerful!” Lard proclaimed.

“Yes, that’s why I urge you to hold back if they annoy you too much,” Yomi begged.

“Huh? What do you mean?” I asked.

Mauri sighed then pressed her hand against the wall, then said, “It’s better if you see it for yourself…”

The section of the ground we were standing on shook, then began moving downwards like an elevator. As the elevator music played, I gulped and prepared for the worst.