Artifacts are items with the capability to store mana in the form of spells. Contrary to normal weapons and armors that contain runes to facilitate the casting of certain spells, artifacts don´t need innate abilities to be used effectively. Artifacts can contain all sorts of spells and come in a large variety of forms and values.

They are generally categorized into three categories: Rechargeable, multiple-use, and single-use artifacts.

Rechargeable artifacts can be used nearly indefinitely as long as they are recharged with mana after a few uses and/or a certain time restriction. They mostly contain simpler spells like guiding light, antidote, lesser aura of protection, and so on.

Multiple-use artifacts contain more powerful spells and can only be used a certain amount of times. The spell's effectiveness can deteriorate the more often the artifact is used. After it is completely used up it will lose all of its power.

Single-use artifacts often contain powerful high-tier spells that can only be used once. As the spells in artifacts don't need to be cast they often contain spells that are too time-consuming to use or simply too complicated to be used in actual combat.

For every single artifact created one needs not only an intact monster core but also a skilled mage that can cast the spell desired for the artifact.

As they allow every person with enough money to cast powerful spells the sale of artifacts is highly regulated.

When Lena arrived in the small chamber beneath the boss room she saw Garro standing in front of the small patch of mana grass. Right in the middle of it, where the small flower once resided, was a small hole. However, what caught Lena´s attention wasn´t the hole; it was the feeling of the surrounding chamber.

The air was completely devoid of mana, the only traces coming from the mana grass in the middle. Lena´s core ached and burned from the powerful strain it inflicted on her. It was completely different from before where she had felt welcomed and safe, now it was just painful and exhausting. It wasn´t an environment for monsters anymore.

Nonetheless, Lena could feel some relief as Garro seemed to be fine. He seemed to be more than fine even. When he saw her approaching he looked at her with a wild toothy smile.

"You seem rather proud of yourself. I guess that everything went well?" She asked, trying to ignore her aching core.

"Yes, I managed to retrieve the dungeon heart without a problem." he paused.

"I...I have to thank you, Lena. Without your help, I doubt that I would have succeeded. I am deeply grateful for your help."

"Well,... my pleasure I guess." For some reason, it made her uncomfortable.

"I did get a lot out of it after all, so it was only natural to help you a bit and you saved my life up there too." She said.

He let out a deep chuckle.

"I don´t think you understand to what extent you helped me today Lena. Not only did you save me, but also my entire clan. Thanks to you we will be able to create ourselves a new dungeon, and hopefully a new home." His golden eyes expressed nothing but deep gratitude. It made her uneasy.

Lena was generally happy that he managed to get what he wanted, and that he could save his people. But in the end, it hadn´t been her goal at all, she didn´t know his people nor was she keen on being praised. All she had wanted was loot and some cool fights. In the beginning, she didn´t even really care about Garro, other than the fact that he was the first Beastman that she had ever seen.

It just didn´t feel right for her that he thanked her so honestly. Without him, she would probably be dead by now and none of them would have succeeded in their goals.

Instead of facing the over joyous Beastman, Lena decided to retrieve her last reward, the mana grass. Not only was it relatively valuable but it was also a great alchemic ingredient. With a few trained motions, she collected the mana grass and stored it inside her ring.

"So you possess a storage artifact?" Garro aspect.

"Yeah, so what? You have one too, or do you want me to believe you stored the dungeon core in your pants?"

He let out a roaring laugh.

"You got me there."

After scanning the chamber for any resources that she might have left behind, they made their way back up and out of the dungeon. The way back was rather uneventful as they took the same path back. Lena decided to follow Garro back to his dungeon entrance as she didn´t want to path the labyrinth again.

Garro´s entrance seemed to be embedded into a small mountain with a large river that flowed nearby. Seeing the river she suddenly felt filthy and disgusting. She was covered in blood and dirt. Garro wasn´t looking any better but he didn´t seem to mind at all, still wearing that over joyous smile that hadn´t left his face since.

Even though she wanted nothing more than to run toward the river and take a bath, she couldn´t. Damn social rules.

"I guess that is the point where we part ways?" She said.

"Yes, I guess it is. It has been a pleasure to explore this dungeon together with you. You were of great help to me and my clan. As such, I feel obligated to give you something." He said with a booming voice. He smiled down at me.

He fucking knows that it makes me uncomfortable!

"That isn´t necessary Garro, I already got more than enough from this dungeon." She said.

"It is not something that you can refuse Lena. It is a gift." He suddenly took my armored gauntlet and placed something in it.

"I originally intended to use it against the dungeon boss to buy me enough time to retrieve the heart by myself, but thanks to your help it wasn´t necessary."

It was a rather crude-looking necklace made out of hundreds of small interlocked bones. Even if it looked simple Llena could feel the power it contained.

"This artifact contains the powerful binding spell "Holy chains". It can only be used once tho, so be careful with how you use it." He explained.

An artifact, and a really good one at that. Even if the spell could only be used once she could feel how powerful it was. From the name, it should be a spell requiring light mana, which made it even more valuable to her as she, couldn´t use light affinity mana really well.

"Thank you. I hope that you and your clan can find a new home." Garro nodded. Just before leaving Lena realized something.

"You don´t happen to know in which direction lays Knightfall?" She asked.

The large Beastman let out an amused growl before answering.

"You just need to follow the river. Be careful on your journey Lena, perhaps we will meet again."

"Same to you." Without further words, they parted ways. Garro towards his clan to lead them to wherever the gods would lead them and Lena towards the river, to take a bath. Everyone has their own priorities.

Soon Lena reached the shallow river bench and looked at the clear water. She didn´t even take her time to look at her distorted reflection before she jumped into the cold water with glee. The cold temperature of the water didn´t bother her in the slightest, quite the contrary, it felt refreshing. With most of the blood and filth washed off, Lena decided to take off her armor to clean it.

The sun slowly vanished behind the horizon as Lena took her time to relax in the shallow water. In the end, she stayed in the water for far longer than necessary, enjoying the flowing water around her.

When she finally left the river and lit a small campfire, night had already fallen upon her. After days of marching and a whole day in the dungeon, she was exhausted. Not physically, but mentally. Even if she wanted to reach Knightfall as fast as possible, there was no need to rush. She decided to take the night to rest. With her armor back on, Lena sat beside her fire and looked up to the stars letting her mind drift off.

Maybe she should have accompanied him? After all, it was possible that he needed her for something else.

No.

Garro was doing fine and she had her destination and goals. The fact that she was alone again was nothing new to her, she would survive a few more days alone. Once she reached Knightfall she would register as an adventurer and explore and fight together with many cool warriors. Perhaps she would even fight alongside other Beastmen again? There was no reason to be sad.

She looked up to the stars and let the cold breeze wash over her.

Today she had explored her first dungeon, the thought made her giggle. She was like the heroes in the books now. As a human, she could only dream about conquering a dungeon but as an undead, it was only the first. Lena didn´t intend to beat only one dungeon, she would beat them all.

Her girly giggle mixed with the sound of the flowing river and the crackling fire. Another goal for the Greatest Undead of the world.

It was a silly thought, but nonetheless, she was happy. Comparing herself to a Heroe might be farfetched for now, but maybe not forever. Even if she still had a long way to go.

Because today had realized one major thing. She was inexperienced.

Even if she was physically powerful she had little to no real combat and dungeon experience. Eshen might have taught her how to fight humans but monsters were entirely different.

Every single new monster she had encountered today had managed to injure her in some way. That the Boss injured her was expected, it was a dungeon boss after all. But the metal reapers? The slimes? With her abilities, she should have been able to crush every single one of them without even being touched.

Without her armor and her magic, she might even have died today. Lena was just too reckless, too straightforward, she needed to be more careful. Also, she needed to use her magic more actively in combat if necessary. If she had used her magic from the beginning against the dungeon Boss she would have beaten it with ease.

But was that something she wanted? If she had used her magic from the beginning it would have been over too fast. Where was the challenge in that? She wanted to fight worthy foes after all. There was no fun in defeating her opponents with magic if she could duel them with her blades.

She needed to find a good balance between risk and fun. If a fight wasn´t fun anymore or it angered her, she would blast her enemies away with her magic. She grinned. That sounded about right.

But it also brought her to another problem, her mana. Or her mana consumption to be exact.

She knew that the undead needed more mana than other monsters as they were entirely kept alive by it. As a consequence, they were much more aggressive since they needed more prey to stay "alive". And there was her problem. Since she became undead she always kept her core filled to the brim as Eshen provided her with regular mana potions.

Even as her training became more and more mana-consuming, her core almost always remained filled to the top. But since she had left Eshen she hadn´t paid so much attention to her core. Over the last few days, she had used magic, blade skills, and mana-induced physical enhancement, but not to a point where it would empty her core to the degree that it did.

Even after multiple days of travel and fights, she shouldn´t have consumed enough mana to deplete her core to such a point. The dungeon should have also greatly reduced the amount of consumed mana, but her core was still depleted.

Normally monsters could survive for months sometimes years without the need to refill their cores. Even undead could survive for months with a full core if they didn't actively fight. Lena even had the advantage to be a lich and had more mana than most. She should be able to live for over a month without the need to refill her core, even with the use of magic and occasional fights. So why?

Why did her core nearly deplete entirely in just a few days?

For some reason, she consumed more mana than before. Much more.

Lena couldn't continue her travel before she managed to solve this problem, or at least before she knew why she consumed so much more. She closed her eyes and focused on her inner self, her mana.

Her core still looked like a bubble of liquid silver. Hundreds of bright tendrils branched out from it like rivers and connected every part of her body with energy, allowing her perfect control over every muscle in her body.

Whenever she observed the slowly pulsing orb inside of her chest her mind was at ease. But not today. She needed to know what was going on. Lena tried to find something different than before, something strange or broken.

At first, she couldn´t find anything amiss, her core was still as brilliant and cold as before. But after a moment she saw something new.

A small distortion. A ripple on the liquid surface of her core. And it wasn´t passive. Like a parasitic leech, it constantly sucked away a large amount of her mana, but for some reason, she didn´t perceive it as harming. It seemed...normal?

How could something that sucked away at her lifeforce feel normal?

It didn't seem to be an injury or some sort of undead disease at least and it didn't look like it directly harmed her. It was just increasing her general mana consumption. Which was still a concern, especially if she had to refill her core every few days.

"Just what is that thing?" She yelled into the night.

What if it grew? At the moment the distortion on her core was relatively small but even now the impact it had on her core wasn't neglectable. If it grew...she might not be able to sustain herself.

It was a threat, even if her weird undead senses told her that it was okay didn't mean that she was accepting to get sucked dry by whatever that thing was.

Lena concentrated entirely on the strange distortion. The sounds of the river and the forest, and the soft breeze around her faded until all she perceived was her core. The small silvery orb pulsed slowly and send mana into every fiber of her body. A single riggle could be seen on the smooth surface of her core, like a crack in a marble.

After what felt like hours of internal observation Lena saw that the ripple in her core didn't just absorb mana, it also returned mana. It was hard to perceive as the amount of returned mana was so little compared to the amount it absorbed, but it was there. Also, she realized that the mana it emitted was different, it was still hers, but...more.

That's when she knew what was going on. Eshen had told her that it was going to happen, but not how it was going to happen. She was evolving. Her core was evolving into that of a rank seven monster.

At least that was her guess. Whether or not didn't matter at the moment. In both cases, she couldn't do much. If she was really evolving it seemed that it would take time and unit then she couldn't really do much. If It was something else... Well, she would see.

Either way, she was gonna pay close attention to it.

Lena let out a sigh and opened her eyes. She hadn't even realized that she had closed them during her meditation. In the coming days, she would have to be careful. She was approximately a week away from nightfall and the risk of encountering people would be high, even if she stayed away from roads.

It still felt surreal to be this close to such a large city. Knightfall was known for so much, the beautiful temples, the royal palace, the delicious food, the food, the knights and so much more. Hundreds of great heroes were born or at least came past Knightfall. Even one of the three great academies for magic was located there.

On the contrary, Maryda was known for... Well, nothing at all really. Maryda was just another small village like hundreds of others. She wouldn't even be sure if it existed for the king if the tax collector didn't come on a regular basis.

Once she reached Knightfall she could finally register herself as an adventurer and fully start her new life.

The rest of the night Lena let her mind flow with the river, only occasionally checking on the distortion on her core. When the sun rose she felt much better. The fact that she couldn't sleep was still something that bothered her, she could meditate or simply let her mind drift off, but it wasn't the same as sleeping. Nonetheless, she felt refreshed and ready to continue her journey.

As she began to follow the river north, a thought crossed her mind. In order to survive, she needed a constant amount of mana. For now, she was pretty sure that she would be able to sustain herself with enough cores and occasional dungeon dives. But was there a better method?

When Garro had told her that he wanted to take the dungeon heart she found the idea repulsive and dangerous, not to forget illegal. But what if she had a dungeon heart?

Dungeon hearts produced mana, she needed mana. With such an item she would be able to sustain herself indefinitely. If she managed to transport it and hide it from others like her armor hid her core, she wouldn't have to bother with monster cores at all. The more she thought about it the better she found the idea of her personal dungeon heart.

But she knew that it wasn't so simple. Dungeons were rare and well protected. Not to forget that she didn't know how the retrieve them safely. Finding a forgotten dungeon far away from any hyper-protective nation ready to be picked apart was a chance of one in a million. And she just missed hers.

Maybe, just maybe one day she would find another dungeon heart and wouldn't have to worry about mana anymore. "Another day, another dream I guess." She said slightly frustrated. Garro really got the best thing from that dungeon.

Lena didn't begrudge Garro for the fact that he took the dungeon heart, he needed it too after all. But it was still frustrating that she missed such a chance. At least he didn't realize that she was undead. Her dark blood was quite a hint and she had been injured a lot in the dungeon. It would have been depressing to be attacked by the Beastman, especially since she liked him. Thankfully, her black armor prevented such a thing.

And so she cautiously walked along the river towards her goal. Knightfall here I come.

He stood upon a small hill and let his gaze wander over the other large forest that he and his clan just left behind. His clan traveled in a small caravan of maybe sixty people and a few carts. They had taken everything they possessed but were nonetheless moving relatively fast. The fact that he had managed to retrieve the dungeon heart had been a great motivation for them after all.

But Garro himself still looked back.

When he heard someone approach he turned around.

"Does something bother you? You seem a bit distracted since you came back, did something happen in the dungeon?" The tall feline asked, her cat-like tail waving behind her.

"It's nothing Sirvanna. I'm just thinking about the woman that helped me out." He said. As soon as he said it he regretted it.

"Ohoo, the mysterious warrior girl, I understand." She said with a devious grin.

"But don't think too long, we still have a long way ahead. You can't let yourself get distracted by pretty girls like that." Without letting him answer she headed back towards the caravan still grinning.

Garro let out a deep sigh at looked back to the forest and the ex-dungeon that lay within. Even after thinking over it for a day, he still couldn't quite believe it. An undead that acted like a human was unheard of, but he had smelled enough undead to know what she was. He hadn't realized it from the start, but after the boss fight, he was sure of it.

He had heard her bones break from the snake's grip, and no human could regenerate that fast, not to speak of fighting. The fact that he couldn't sense any mana from her should have warned him, as well as the fact that she was alone. But she had acted so humanly...

And she had saved his life. She had helped him, his clan. Whatever she was he would always be grateful for her help.

"Good luck Lena, your secret is safe with me." That said he turned back to the caravan of Beastmen and began his journey towards a new home.