It had been around thirty minutes since Ghost had vanished. All I had done so far was merely approaching the camp a little bit and once again looking all over it, trying to find any weak point - less guarded gate, possible a hole in the wall, or an elevated ground close to it which would allow me to simply jump over it.

The problem was that… it had none of these. The House of Silver Lion was made of the finest adventurers and knights, who knew the army drills far too well, and as such, left no opening for an untrained eye of pseudo-scout such as myself. There was no way to get myself in without revealing myself. Simply none.

And so, I decided to wait some more. Captain Ghost said that guards tend to get bored after twenty or so minutes of guarding. I hoped that some of them would neglect their duty, maybe stop patrolling to chat together… but once again, no such thing happened. They did talk to one another, yes, but even those brief conversations lasted one minute at most before they resumed their duties again.

I was slowly losing the last bits of my hope when I noticed something by one of the side gates. Someone had stopped in front of it, calling forth the guard. Some sort of cargo cart was being led by four knights. I couldn’t quite see what was in it… until the knights were given permission to enter and the cart moved onward, a bit too quickly, and so “something” fell off of it and onto the ground.

It was a body. Body of an undead, to be precise. Apparently smaller collection teams got sent to the locations where hunting parties eliminated undead during the day. Their task was to collect bodies and send them to the purifying tents for priests to cleanse. In the end, no one wanted the dead to bother the living ever again.

Fuck, I was nearly jelaous of these non-moving corpses, they didn’t need to even try to get themselved into the camp! Pha! If I could only lie down and get myself transported right into the ca…

…

..

.

… I am an idiot.

In the dark I could see even better than during the day, and so finding the cart’s traces in the soft soil was as easy as a walk in the park… Walk in the park as a human, not a walking dead. Anyways! I quickly followed the path away from the camp where the road was a bit more “bumpy”, with rocks on the side of the path, pools of wet mud and other drivers nightmares, and then, in that disgusting, wet, sticky soil, I dropped my body, twisting my joints in awkward positions. And then, I waited some more. And waited.

And waited.

For at least an hour! Knowing my luck, it could be their last round around the area for that night! I was about to get up, cursing everything that is holy in heaven, when I heard the rhythmic sound of a horse walking clearly carrying some ballast behind it. Soon, the light of torches illuminated my body.

“Seriously?! Another one!? Just how many corpses have you left behind, Jack!? Which one is this? Your fifth?! Honestly, you are the worst cart driver I have ever been assigned to!” “Fuck off, you nasty cock-stain, will ya?! It wasn’t supposed to be my shift tonight! I am fucking exhausted! Seriously, who ordered to carry the corpses in the middle of the night!? Couldn’t we do that tomorrow?!”

Man called Jack jumped off the cartsmen spot and walked toward me.

“Oi, don’t you want to check if he isn’t a walker?” Other man raised his voice clearly concerned. “Why should I? If it dropped off my cart it means it has already been checked! Did ya switch your mind with yar brain?!” “... It could be a trap, you know? It could observe us and just lie here, waiting for us to collect it and bring it straight to the camp…”

My non existing heart skipped a beat, and then, after a few seconds of an absolute silence, the other men burst into loud laughter.

“Good one! Good one Steve, I thought you were deprived of humor yet here you go - such a gem! It will be my turn to say it next time!” “No, seriously, look! This skeleton is huuuge! Bigger than any of us! Do you remember carrying such a beast before!?” “Steeevy! Stev! My boy! I have carried around a hundred corpses tonight, half of which were skeletons. Do you remember each and every skeleton that you saw this night?! In absolute darkness!?” “W-well, no…” “Look, Stevy, sometimes, in the dark we get scared, and when we are scared our fears appear bigger than they really are!” the man changed his tone, into that of a father lecturing his five year-old son. The mockery was more than obvious, especially since the rest of the knights were chorteling loudly “... But, you need to raise your head and face your fears, only then you will…” “Oh fuck off! Still, if someone were to report that not only you kept on dropping the bodies during the journey, but also that you didn’t check for possible ambushes, you would get yourself in troubles with the captains!” “Yeah, sure, but for that someone would need to write an additional report, and who could consider doing all that extra work only to be a bitch to m… Ey… Ey, Steve. Come on mate, don’t be an ass! You seriously would write a report on me!?” “Dunno, Jack, are you seriously an ass to me all the fucking time, atop of that an ass that does his job poorly and keeps skimping on procedures?!” “Steve, you are an absolute bitch! Fine, I will check him ok?”

No-no-no-no-no!

He picked through his coat and pulled out a bottle and sprayed it all over me.

You are in contact with [Regular-Tier Holy Water] You suffer [28] dmg

FOR THE MERCY OF THE THREE! THAT FUCKING HURTS! STEVE! I DON’T KNOW YOU, AND I DON’T WANT TO EVER KNOW YOU, BUT JUST AS YOUR FRIEND SAID! YOU ARE A BITCH!

“See? It didn’t even flinch! And when they are treated with holy water these low class bastards tend to run and yell as if caught in fire!”

The pain stopped, still, its echo still resonated through my bones.

“... It could pretend. Or be higher rank undead more resistant towards the holy element…”

STEVE! YOU CUNT! FUCK OFF!

“The fuck you want me to do!?” “... Use more of it!”

LIST! YOU ARE NOW ON MY LIST STEVE! IN THIS LIFE OR THE NEXT! I WILL FUCKING BUTCHER YOU LIKE A PIG!

[Grudge] detected. Do you wish to add target [Steve Jackob] to your |list|? [Yes] [No]

... I wil decide later!

Application added to [Pending] “I fucking won't! Piss off! I am running short on supplies of holy water and we still need to make after this journey two more! I checked it, now, you either take it, or in this report you gonna turn to the captain you will also add why you left a body that was checked in the middle of the road AFTER forcing me into wasting the supplies of magical items on it!? HUH!?”

You tell him, Jack! That’s the way! Assert dominance! Will you let this inferior pseudo-knight of clearly lower rank just order you around!? Show him what kind of man you are! Pee on him, if you have to!

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just… keep an eye on it in case it moves.” “Sure, sure, big boy, shesh, you city boys are such wusses.” “Maybe you also would be one if undead slaughtered your entire family.” Steve hissed through his clenched teeth. “Why do you think I was so eager to take this quest? I literally came back from paid vacation - from spending time with my wife and recently born kid to do this.” “Shit. Kid. Sorry. Didn’t know.” “Whatever. Let’s just deliver this abomination back to the camp. The faster the better… and for everything that is holy and precious to you… watch it in case it moves.” “Sure, sure.”

Finally, I was lifted off the ground and tossed rather roughly into the cart.

“Onward, Betsy, we still need to travel a little tonight! Hy’a!” Jack the cart driver hit Betsy the Horse with reins urging her to resume the journey. The old horse let out a displeased sound, yet did as she was told. “Good girl, good girl, don’t ya worry. Uncle Jack will reward you later with an apple. Or do you prefer carrots?” “... you are nicer to horses than you are to humans, Jack…” “Animals are nice. Most of them treat you the way you treat them. And humans? You can treat them well for years but they’ll backstab you for a shiny gold coin or even less!”

Similar, not very pleasant, deep conversation regarding the nature of humans and advanced thesis regarding social constructs were all attractions I had during this journey, until we reached our first destination - the pile of corpses that one of the teams had left behind. The group started once again filling the cart with corpses, and as I was the first corpse in the cart… every single one after landed directly on me. And so, I noticed something, some of the corpses had bits of essence still flying around them. I feasted once again, getting filled with a disgusting, cold essence. Like swallowing rotten food. Hah, anything to keep my cravings at bay. Last thing I wanted was to hunger for my teammates.

Essence extraction in process [37] Experience prgression [116/500] → [153/500]

The journey back was even less exciting. Due to the mass of bodies all over me I couldn’t even “participate” in their extremely interesting discussion regarding superiority of animals over humans. Not going to lie here - after listening to Jack for a while I became quite a supporter of his vision of the world.

Our cart stopped two more times - by the gate where guards quickly asked a few questions according to the protocol before letting us in, the second stop was, obviously, in front of the purifying tent.

I was once again dropped onto another pile, yet, as the corpses were unloaded according to the rule Last-in-first-out, I was thrown to the top of it.

“Another batch tonight?!” a young male priest groaned. “Two more are supposed to arrive before the dawn.” a feminie voice responded. “Give me a break! We just finished burning the previous one! I am out of mana as well!” “Well, we might as well take a break for an hour or two and rest…” “Right, especially since the guards are checking the corpses before dropping them here, right?” “They are supposed to… but, they are knights. Muscles instead of brains, you can never trust them to follow procedure properly…” the woman sighed deeply “... I think we should at least check a few off the top of the pile…”

Oi, what do you mean by check?

“I should have had it somewhere around here… ah, here is it!” She took a vial off the shelf.

Oi… whatever it is, slowly, without any sudden moves, put it down…

“Holy water! Quite a potent one! I remember begging Captain for weeks to get my hands on this! Should be more than enough to check them!”

She yelled happily uncorking the vial and sprinkling it over the top of the pile… the top, where I was undead number one in its path.

You are in contact with [Potent Holy Water] You suffer [52] dmg

My empty eye sockets actually started tearing up… oh, no, wait, it was only a drop of holy water getting stuck in there. The sensation was similar to having boiling acid poured directly into your eyes. Would make everything and everyone get up from the grave just to scream and wave hands over one's head in an absolute madness.

“See? No reaction. We are free to go and take a well-earned break!”

As soon as the priests went out of the tent I jumped up and started running across the tent in all directions waving my hands over my head. In an absolute madness.

THE PAIN! THE HUMILIATION! Who the fuck made these god-forsaken droplets of holy water?!

I raised the vial off the shelf and read the label. It had a picture of a white swan swimming in the lake along with the text: Problems with impure ghosts and spirits? Cast them to hell with brand new Holy Water - the Purifier ™ of Jennifer Krureger Alchemist Guild! Now with brand new lemon taste!

FUCK YOU, JENNY KRUREGER! I SHOULD ADD YOU TO MY LIST AS WELL!

[Grudge] detected. Do you wish to add target [Jennifer Krureger] to your |list|? [Yes] [No]

I WILL DECIDE LATER AS WELL!

Application added to [Pending]

I picked up a piece of cloth and wiped off the acidic substance off my body before leaving the tent.

Of course I didn't just “leave it”, instead, I enhanced my senses and scanned the area looking for life-prints in the darkness - the hint that any guard or just bypasser walked in front of the tent. But, I sensed no such thing, and so I once again welcomed the blissful breeze of the night.

Now, the easier part. Getting to my tent… which was on the completely opposite side of the camp. Across numerous guard posts and patrols. Easy peasy. I had already learned the patterns of the guards…

…

… Ok! Ok, I didn’t, but I knew exactly where they were traveling through, so as long as I paid attention I should have…

…

… Ok! Fine, I might not know EXACTLY where there were, but I knew general locations! All main paths were a no-go zone, which meant I had to simply travel across the back alleys! I could really use a disguise, unfortunately, the cleansing tent had nothing I could use.

… You can’t have everything you need, right? As Ghost said - scouts and assassins quite often have to act without all vital information, gathering them instead during the mission. Actually, I was quite sure that he didn’t expect me to succeed! But, to me, it’s just another step I needed to achieve my goal. This much, is nothing! I still need more! Learn more! Achieve more! Gather experience, knowledge and allies! And then… I will take everything back! I will make Michael pay, I will show Liz that I am still there, and with the help of Zariel I will somehow regain my body! And everything…

… everything will be as it was supposed to be. Again.

I resumed my journey towards my tent.

There was only one group of patrolling guards completely neglecting their duties. They were sitting in one of the back alleys that they were supposed to patrol, sitting on boxes and drinking honey spiced with herbs and alcohol - something they stole from kitchen supplies. Even Houses of the best knights had a few bad apples.

“For another great night shift! Best. Work. Ever! We are actually paid for drinking the whole night away!” “Yeah, life can be good! I still remember working as a higher tier adventurer. Shit, that sucked. But, advancing in guild ranks quickly and making myself a name to join the House really paid off! Right now all I do is butcher lower rank undead and being paid thrice as much! On top of that… Wait. Was that barrel always there before?”

The man asked while looking at a suspicious vessel made of wood used to usually store liquids inside. You could never fully trust these pesky barrels!

“Jeff, you tripping already? After two mugs no less!” “Fuck off, that was not here before!... Oh, I get it. Ha-ha. Very funny. To put in there just to scare me off!” “We didn’t do shit, mate! We have been sitting here with you this entire time! Not to mention that… Wait, what barrel are you talking about?” “What do you mean!? About thi… where did it go?” “That’s it Jeff, you’re seeing stuff. You stop at two mugs, if the lieutenants come for inspection it would be clear we were drinking!” “I'm sober, I am telling you! You got to believe me…”

The dispute continued, but the barrel didn’t stay to listen to it. No, the barrel was indeed going deeper into the camp, carried on by a pair of boney legs.