When I stopped singing while contemplating my options for the future and the truly horrific stuff I’ll have to do in the future. I mean, I doubt the Wolfsguard empire can survive me killing not only their goddess but also most likely their ruler and her inner circle or something. I doubt any country, let alone a so-called empire, could survive that easily.

I’d just have to try and minimize the amount of innocents I’d directly effect. Perhaps I should try and train up high enough to be able to raise some undead that can raise other undead. Those I could then just send out to all graveyards and great battlefield locations to raise up an army.

When I opened my eyes I flinched a little. The merchants and pedestrians were staring at me. I raised an eyebrow and felt my cheeks heat up. “W-what?” I asked a little uneasily and watched some of them look from me to one another before one came forward with a curious look to his face.

“I don’t suppose you are a bard?” He asked and my eyes widened a bit at his question.

“No...” I said drawing it out just a little.

“Oh, good! Cause kid, you don’t have the voice for it. Your much too quiet.” He then said letting out an exhale of relief and smiled as he slapped his hand on my shoulder. I felt my face grow hot with embarrassment and swallowed a little as the people around good-naturedly ripped me.

I had to put my hood on again as I walked away, I felt rather foolish to have forgotten myself like that. Now I hadn’t just gone into fully and loudly singing “just the two of us” it was rather a soft-spoken sort of melody I had sang which while carried the tune well seemed much too quiet for these people. I had thought I had been howling like a madman when they had stared at me like that. “Yubb, I’m not becoming a bard at all.” I muttered to myself as I put my hands into my pockets and lowered my head.

I wouldn’t be able to handle that type of attention and if I was at the head of an army I’d most likely have something covering my face so I could take shelter in that at least. A Shiver ran down my spine at the thought of performing on a stage.

I realize how stupid that is, given I have killed before and my life as a supposed hero but some fears it seems don’t fade that easily.

I sighed as I walked past a stall that caused me to stop in my tracks mid sigh. The stall was selling bags and jewellery. I raised an eyebrow as I barely managed to read the sign. ‘Storage items’ was written rather horrifically on a sign hanging off the stall. Now I’m not someone that should be speaking of bad writing as when one of my siblings was six they wrote better than me. I was the envy of every doctor, I had joked.

“Can I help you?” A wizened middle-aged woman asked me. A single streak of grey running along with her thick dark brown hair which gave her almost a wise appearance. That is, coupled with her striking grey eyes.

“Uh.” I sputtered, cause I’m so darn good with people. “I don’t suppose you sell spatial bags?” I asked a little awkwardly and rubbed the back of my head.

The woman just stared at me like I was the village idiot. “I do. I have spatial bags, rings, amulets, bracelets and other accessories.” She said as she gestured down upon her stall. I saw several bags which would fit on my side, some interestingly designed rings, necklaces with differently designed medallions, bracer's, gloves and even some piercings.

I was rather intrigued as I looked over several of the items she had for sale. “What is the cheapest one?” I asked her as I looked up from the items to the saleswoman.

“I’d say this one.” She said as she took up a small sort of tube that was a dull metal colour. “This is an earring of sorts and can hold up to around 90 kilograms or so.” She said as she looked at my face with scrutiny. “It’ll cost you ten gold coins.” She said and I blanched at her.

“That’s enough to live in the inn for almost two years!” I said incredulously at the outrageous price. I had thought it would be some silver coins or something given the currency of this world. Especially since it followed the 100 of a lower was worth 1 of the higher type system.

“Take it or leave it.” She said with an annoyed look in her eyes. I almost growled at her before I felt an impact to my shoulder and I saw a big burly man, that was rather familiar, walk past me.

“I won’t be swindled by you.” I said angrily before I watched after the burly man and a woman came up to him. Hooking her arm around his own and her pointy hat almost pressed against the man’s face it was so… wide-brimmed. I began to see red and I ignored what the woman trying to rob me said and walked after the couple.

“So where to now?” The woman asked in a sultry tone as she leaned against the man.

“I don’t know. All we know is that something is supposed to happen in this city.” The man answered in a gruff tone while turning his face to look at the woman on his arm.

I froze as I saw his face. It was almost the spitting image of Ragnar. However something was wrong, he didn’t have his full beard and seemed much more youthful than anything. “Excuse me!” I called out, deciding to take it safe and gather info first. They didn’t know I was still around and it had been twenty years after all.

The man who looked like Ragnar looked over at me and cocked his head a little. The woman did the same and I saw she was nothing like Sigrun. No, where Sigrun had been the embodiment of the sexy full-bodied witch, this woman’s assets were modest but evenly distributed. Her long red hair had been covered by the wide-brimmed hat she wore and instead of a witches outfit she wore something similar to what Mario had worn.

Something a scholarly adventurer would wear. The man wore an armour that was rather similar to my own, just not as tattered and instead of a leather chest armour his was steel or iron I thought.

“Can I help you?” The not Ragnar said with a dubious expression on his face. He seemed to be studying me before he went wide-eyed at seeing my eyes and ears as I took off my hood.

“I don’t suppose you are adventurers?” I asked a little hesitantly, acting the part of a would-be adventurer.

The man snorted at me derisively before he made a gesture as if to wave me off. “Yeah and? What’s it to you?”

He got slapped on the chest by the woman who half scowled half, smiled up at him. “Manners dear.” She said gently. That sentence almost made me go berserk and fully utilize all my skills to rip them both apart with my claws.

She then turned to me and smiled. “I am Brynja and this is my fiancée Robert.” She said gently and I felt almost like all strength left my body.

“R-Robert?” I asked before swallowing a thick lump that had formed in my throat.

“Yeah, what? You think it’s a bad name?” Robert almost shot at me and I almost flinched at how he responded to me using his name. “You're an Alfar right? What are you doing here? And why did you ask us if we are adventurers?” He said walking up to me and pressing his finger at my chest.

While I was maybe close to 1.8 or 1.9 meters in height Robert towered over me at most likely 2.1 meters tall.

I almost took a step back before I swallowed a little and looked up at him. “I am a Dökk Alfar yes. I’m here on my own business and I asked you because I wanted to know if there was a guild in this town or not.” I replied almost tersely, something about this Robert rubbed me the wrong way and it wasn’t the fact he looked like a younger version of Ragnar.

“Hmpf.” Robert let out as he crossed his arms and stared down at me. “We are members of the Cliff guard guild.” He said and I saw he almost spit at my feet but stopped when he noticed just how I was looking at him. He seemed to falter a little. “What?”

“Is your fathers name Ragnar? And is your mothers name Sigrun?” I asked calmly. A cold sort of feeling had taken hold of me. I felt like I had been before I came to this world, my feelings muted and reason had a much stronger hold of me.

I studied the face Robert made and I could have sworn he was about to say ‘how did you know?’ before Brynja slapped his shoulder.

“Dear I told you manners. He is most likely looking to become an adventurer and you are giving him a bad impression.” She said chidingly. She must not have heard my question which I was thankful for.

We parted ways after Brynja gave me directions to a guild called the Treasure of Seduction. Original yeah I know. After that, I had bid them farewell and left them behind. I noticed however as I rounded a corner that Robert was staring at me with a strange expression, I couldn’t quite place it at all.

I felt my feelings suddenly rush into me as the cold comfort I had felt faded from my mind. I missed it more than I thought I would have. I almost yearned for it again but I knew that it was a sort of mental deficiency. I mean after all that mindset had come from my Aspergers and how close to being a sociopath I was.

Despite how one would think having little influence from one’s emotions on one’s actions would be a good thing, but in return understanding others becomes much, much harder.

Due to the influx of emotions when I arrived in this world I developed a coping mechanism which was singing low, humming or whistling, something I hadn’t been able to do before coming here. The main reason I believe that I developed that method of coping was likely to keep my memories of earth as fresh as possible in my mind.

This is mostly for two reasons, one as I’ve already said I have a horrible memory and two because I can’t even remember the faces of my parents and siblings any more. I realized that after the first year I had spent here.

At first, I had chalked it up to my horrid memory but I began to notice I remembered things I had forgotten as if my memory was cycling itself or something. Now I’ve begun to suspect this was Aona’s doing and that this corruption in me might very well be that bitch of a goddesses fault.

I clenched my fists as I ran through the alleys of Bedelev, I needed exercise, to kill or something to let my frustrations out on. I decided to pick the middle option as I saw a dwarf pack up his stall.

Bozkurt Magmajaw that fucker had killed me. I guess it’s only fair to return the favour. With that in mind, I continued to run around Bedelev with my hood up as I looked for the Likeable Owl. It took me almost an hour to actually find the inn as despite my almost innate sense of direction this darn city was rather screwed up in how it was planned.

I almost burst into the tavern but managed to slow down and walked into the tavern. The Barmaid smiled at me and I gave her a smile in return before I got something to eat and then sat around the tavern. Looking for those that were drunk enough not to remember me and that I might manage to get some information out of.

In the end, I wasted another hour before I managed to speak to a rather surly looking man and dwarf and I had to spend almost ten silver coins on getting them lubricated enough to talk to me. I found out that Bozkurt was a rather well-known merchant and scoundrel.

He had ties to the city lord and the desert jackals guild. Again with the nameing sense. He was also rather haughty and full of himself as he lived in a rather large house close to the nobles district.

Once I had gotten all I needed to get out of them I handed them another silver coin to keep drinking with and made my way up to my room. Once inside I closed the door and locked it. I began to take off my clothing and looking through my backpack when I noticed there was a mirror large enough to look at my whole body.

I smirked a little and stripped completely and activated the full form of defensive carapace and looked at myself.

Darn was I a scary looking thing with it active. I was like some sort of insectoid man with bone claws at the end of my fingers. All sleek and white carapace making me look almost like a ghost in the dim light from the one candle I had in the room.

I decided to try activating shadow infusion and ethereal armour and I almost took a step back from the mirror. My carapace had become pitch black and seemed to emanate small whisps of black smoke from it. Then when I activated the ethereal armour a sort of linework infused the carapace and gentle blue fire seemed to come from the lines themselves.

Now I had tried to activate both skills at the same time to see if they would create a new skill or blend together but they simply didn’t activate unless I did it one at a time. With that in mind, I moved back to my belongings and pulled out a belt, a surcoat and a hood.

With a little creative snipping, ripping and tearing I looked at my self in the mirror again. I smiled under the carapace as I saw what I had decided to wear was also affected by the skills I had active.

I had a tattered hood that only had a little extra fabric that covered the upper part of my chest and shoulders to hold the hood in place. Around my hips, I had the belt tightly secured around the tattered remains of a surcoat that gave me a sort of long coat ends that seemed to come out of the chest section of my carapace.

Granted I felt a little like some edgy punk trying to be scary but then again I was a freaking shadow infused death knight and necromancer. I can be a little edgy if I want!

I left the rest of my belongings as I didn’t want anyone to make the connection to me if someone saw my swords or something. I muttered a little about how I should have picked the bone weapon skill when I noticed I still had one free skill to choose from the death squire tree.

I smiled wide as I learned it and then left through the window once I had blown out the candle. Silently I slipped up the building, leaving my window as closed as I could leave it without actually closing it.

Then once I was on top of the inn I made sure to use all stealth skills I had. Shadowmeld and Stealth had a fantastic synergy. Almost leaving me as a simple black streak along the rooftops as I moved along towards the noble quarter.

I had half a mind of finding a mugger or something and going all “I’m batman!” on him. I chuckled at the thought.

It was much, much faster to run along the rooftops rather than on the street below. I made it to Bozkurt Magmajaw’s house in just about under half an hour. Looking up I saw the twin moons high in the sky which I took to it being around midnight or so.

Bozkurt’s house was almost like a manor with three floors and a small garden around it fenced off by a reasonably thin stone wall. A gate of wrought iron was the only way in or out it seemed. I moved around the house to observe it as much as I could for almost ten minutes and noticed the guards.

They were all situated in the corners of the garden with a great view of the interior and there seemed to be two groups of two guards that patrolled around the house, with another group of eight that seemed to be city guards patrolling the district.

I didn’t want to raise any minions or even use them in the middle of the city unless I was actually going to wipe it out. Besides I had already filled out my minor skeleton limit and I needed the skill points to actually upgrade the damn thing. Heck, I needed a lot of them actually.

I absent-mindedly went over my character sheet in my mind and counted the skills in need of skill points to upgrade. Five… well, I have a feeling there will be more by the end of the night.

I looked at my fingers and cursed in my mind. I had forgotten the rings with the spectres inside! Damn it! I could have used them to scout the place out. Ah! Never mind I can try to raise a normal skeleton or spectral skeleton once I’ve finished off one of the guards.

Now that I think of it, what the heck is a spectral skeleton and why the heck do I have one already? I shook my head, I was getting much too distracted by my scattered brain.

Breathing in and out a few times to calm myself I lowered myself into one of the alleys near the back of the house. I waited and counted how long it took for each group of guards to make a full rotation and found I had around four or so minutes as a window.

I nodded to myself and took up a sprinters starting position and waited until one of the guard groups came past me. I sprinted out and slammed my open balm into the side of the head of one while gripping the other guard's throat and snapped it. I brought my hand that I had used on the first guard to slam into the second's forehead while holding tightly onto his throat.

I heard the snap and he went limp in my hand. Turning around quickly I stared at the other guard who sat there on his ass and stared at me in horror. A strange almost acidic odour came to my nose and I scowled as I slit the man’s throat. He had pissed himself!

I almost spat at the man but quickly I dragged the men into the alley I had shot out from and placed them both there. I was about to raise them as spectral skeletons but I decided against it. I’d do that to that big ogre looking guy instead. I should keep the special types of undead I can raise for those that seem strong, shouldn't I?

Congratulations skill level up! Raise Skeleton lvl. 3 > lvl. 4!

Minions gained! 1x Skeleton warrior and 1x Skeleton Spearman

With that done I waited and watched as the men’s skin and organs seemed to turn to thick water and sloughed off of them. The stench was horrid and their clothes were all dirty and messy after the process but they at least came with their own equipment. I had both wait for me as I sprinted out at the second group, I took the sword of one of the guards with me this time.

They were talking about some brothel or something and before one had finished laughing I cut one head off. The second didn’t get a chance to scream as I jabbed my bone claws into his throat to silence him. I then took a step back and decapitated him as well.

I handed the skeleton warrior his sword back and raised the other one with a spear this time. Earning myself another level and I used the increased control limit to raise the other gaining another set of skeletons like the last one.

This brought me to my control limit of eight and I frowned as I realized I had left four such skeletons to roam around in the wilderness outside of Bedelev. I’d have to figure out a way to store my minions in a spatial bag or something. I couldn’t just leave them out strolling around like that. What if they were discovered? I’d lose some minions I’d levelled up if that was the case. Not to mention if I was on the road or seen on top of Svadilfara. I’d been lucky so far but I needed to get smarter.

Shaking my head I looked at the wall around the house and then looked at the four skeletons at my side. Two of them put their heads back on which was a little comical actually. I made a mental note to try re-enacting that old spooky scary skeleton’s cartoon for fun if time ever permitted it.

With a mental command, I had two of them give me a little boost up to the top of the wall. I shrouded myself in shadows and slowly stealthed along the top of the wall. I had one of the spear wielders walk alongside me on the side of the wall until I came to one of the corners a guard was at. With a swift stab down I managed to catch him unawares and skewered down into his chest between his clavicle and that small empty part against one’s neck.

With that guard done I helped the skeletons up and let them slowly down into the bushes that the guard had been using to hide in. It was a great spot but I managed to see him because I had used the rooftops around the house to look down and I had dark vision. I don’t think I’d have even noticed them if I didn’t have that and scouted ahead of time.

Once all four skeletons were hidden in the bushes I made my way along the wall and dispatched the other three guards in each corner. I had almost messed up as one of them had been taking a leak and had looked up and saw me just as I was about to pounce on him.

That had got my heart racing like it wanted out of my chest! I knew that I’d need to leave my skeletons outside the house as a deterrent for the patrolling city guard but I decided to also time my entry once they had passed the house.

With that settled, I left the spear skeletons on either side of the gate while I left another of the warrior ones there as well. I might as well use one minion inside after all.

Once I had made my way to the side of the house once the patrol had passed. I found an empty room with a window to it and using the skeletons cloth over the glass I broke in. Once inside I heard a faint musical sound coming from the upper floor. Was the dwarf having a party? The night after he had killed me no less?! The shameless bastard!

I slowly made my way out of the room and had the skeleton move to the door as well. I found that these skeletons were much more like the automatons I had suspected that the minor skeletons would be. Perhaps they’d develop personalities when they ranked up enough? Anyway back to the task at hand.

The house was rather large with a spiralling staircase that led all the way up to the third floor. A hallway seemed to split the house in two from one side to the other, with around four or so rooms on each side. With another larger room behind the spiral stairs.

I suspected that the floor plan followed this rule all the way up though at the top floor I only saw a single door. Perhaps the third floor was only a single room? Well, perhaps that would make this easier, especially given that I heard the faint music coming from there.

I decided to have the skeleton go back into the room and then went through the rooms on the first floor one at a time. I also blew out each candle and source of light I could find to make the task of guarding the first floor that much easier for the skeleton. It could see in the dark after all.

I didn’t find a single living being on the first floor, not even anything that might resemble a bedroom. Servant or not. Perhaps Bozkurt didn’t have live-in servants? Well, that would suit me just fine. I reached the next floor and did the same thing.

I went to one end of the house and once I opened the first door I saw that it seemed to be a bedroom. No one was inside it but I did see a sort of painting on the wall. A picture of Bozkurt standing next to a human woman who sat with a child in her arms. I felt a little confused at that as the picture seemed to be rather old. The paint fading just a little and the very edges just a tad cracked.

I even saw a babies crib at one end of the room but when I walked towards it I noticed the dust on the desk next to the bed. This room hadn’t been entered in a while. I felt a little pang of empathy for Bozkurt. It seemed the man had had a wife and child at some point. I wondered briefly what had happened before I shook my head. The man had killed me, he had made his bed it was time he lay in it.

I left the room but I revised my plan of raising Bozkurt and using his skeleton as some sort of slave. It had been my anger talking after all. I didn’t notice until it was too late that the door opposite the room I was in opened.

I came face to face with the ogre looking brute and we stared at one another for a few long moments. Then his face seemed to grow visibly paler and I put up a finger to where my lips were. That seemed to snap him out of it and the next thing I knew I saw a large fist in front of my face.

Next thing I knew I crashed through the door behind me and rolled along the floor until I came to a sitting position and hit my head against the crib. “Can someone… tell me what hit me?” I almost whined as my head moved in circles, my mind in a complete daze.

My vision blurred and went into focus many different times as I watched the brute come walking into the room. He wore a white shirt with suspenders and trousers. He kinda reminded me of those old mob goons that were big and menacing.

“I don’t know what you are but you came into the wrong house.” He said with venom dripping from his tone. I noticed he had pulled out metal gauntlets to cover his hands, from where? I had no freaking idea, perhaps I had been more out of it than I thought if he had time to do that. He advanced at me and brought his massive arm to bear.

Right as he was about to punch my head in I managed to turn my head to the side. His fist sailed passed my head and smashed the crib to kindling. Scrambling I half crawled away from him as I tried to get my bearings again.

Only to get kicked off the ground and onto the desk. The desk’s legs gave out and it fell down giving me another hit. As I stumbled up to my feet once more I was punched into my gut. I felt my meal flow out as I vomited before he gripped me by my hood and threw me out into the hallway.

I crashed into the door he had come through, but the door held this time, though the cracks in it showed it had held only barely. I pushed off with my right leg and half jumped down the hallway. My fervent hope that I could get my mind to stop ringing before I got my bell rung again like that. How strong was this fucker?! I mean I have 34 and could most likely lift a water barrel over my shoulder with ease but him! He sent me flying through a door for Christ's sake!

I managed to fling myself over the railing of the staircase to stabilise my stumbling half jumps. I looked behind me and saw the brute just having gotten out of the room and was stomping towards me.

I felt a cold shiver slowly run down my spine, like some spider made of ice was taking its time down my spine. I had just managed to get up to my feet when he had reached me. I snarled and lashed out with my claws. That seemed to catch him off guard, his face paling just a little though soon it regained it’s rage redness.

I managed to slash four harsh cuts onto his stomach which began to soak his white shirt in red. I continued to snarl as if I was a beast and used the small window to let my regeneration keep up.

I should have used one of the dead to make a bone weapon but that won’t work now. As I was already managing to move marginally well again I jumped up and kicked off the railing. I rocketed towards the brute and sank my claws into his chest as I landed on it and let out a low intimidating growl. Then I jumped off managing a backflip like movement that sent my feet straight into his chin and added to the force causing him to stumble back.

He staggered a few steps and I saw one of his legs lift up a little. I decided to seize the chance and darted forwards, running as low to the ground as I could manage my claws extended and poised to slash up his calf.

Right as my claws reached out to slash up his leg I felt a heavy impact into my back. I fell hard onto the floor, sprawled and stopped dead in my tracks. I felt my lungs attempt to collapse but somehow I managed to breathe in a deep breath to try and keep them filled.

I turned my head and immediately rolled to the side. The brute’s foot came down so hard it actually went through the floor.

Taking the chance I managed to get up to my knees and slashed out at the man’s face. I felt how my claws ran along his skull and the squelching of the man’s right eye as they ripped it out. I felt sick to my stomach, which was only compounded as the man backhanded me hard into my abdomen. I felt like there was a small metal ball ringing out inside my guts as it bounced around at incredible speeds. Then I felt my back hit the railing.

I let out something akin to a gasp and a gurgle as I felt the hard metal bar of a railing hit me right above the kidneys. Sending a sharp ripple of force into both my kidney’s and seemed to cause my stomach to do a backflip. I growled again as I supported my weight against the now slightly bent railing. I stared daggers at the brute as he tried to get his foot out of the floor.

I grew angrier and angrier. I summoned the shadow strike and power strike skills into my claws and ran up to him. I slashed so hard into his right bicep that I tore a chunk of it off. He began to scream but I continued with another slashing motion at his jaw and scrapped off the flesh from the bone at his chin. Along the right length of his jaw to his chin one could see the white of bone underneath the flesh.

He cried out and as he tried to back hand me again I managed to grip the hand with both hands and stabbed my clawed fingers into the arm. I began to gather in mana to use a point blank Shadow strike and shadow infused shadow bolt.

But the mad brute brought his left arm to bear and hit my gut once more in an almost uppercut move. I puked once more, all over him this time, serves the bastard right. However, this time I felt my knees bang on the railing behind me and I flipped over it. My back hit the cast iron panel under the railing in place of a wall. Then from that hit, I felt one of the decorative spikes in the design jam up into my shoulder blade, almost ripping it open.

The strength of that hit caused me to sort of front flip which landed me on my back once again in the darkness bellow the second floor. I felt all wind knocked out of me and my back arched as I tried to draw in breath. To my horror I couldn’t exhale, the pain in my back so great that each time I tried to draw out-breath the pain cause my lungs to expand instead drawing more tiny little breaths as I felt like my lungs would explode.

I began to panic as I felt my vision go blurry as I thought I’d die of suffocation now. Then I saw the brute manage to move to the railing and look down. I activated shadow meld out of instinct and he didn’t seem to see me. I was half glad that my sharp rhythmic inhales didn’t catch his attention.

To my absolute panic, I saw the brute limp towards the staircase. I couldn’t risk him coming down before I caught my breath or worse yet! I couldn’t allow him to go upstairs for reinforcements!

He was tough enough on his own. I cursed inwardly as I writhed on the ground and banged my fist against my chest to try and kick-start my damnable lungs to working again. Then I turned my vision from the brute and saw the skeleton standing there maybe two or three steps away.

The idiot just stared at me, as if stupefied by my actions. I mentally screamed for him to slam his boot down onto my chest and felt the trapped air in my lungs that I had gathered up be violently expelled.

I groaned and rolled onto my side, breathing in and out heavily. While I managed to get myself under control I sent the skeleton up the staircase to catch the brute off guard or something. Once I managed to stand up on shaky legs I looked up. The Brute hadn’t decided to come down. Instead he was halfway up to the third floor and the skeleton had just about managed to reach the second floor. The brute’s limping leg giving the skeleton’s bumbling gate just enough speed to maybe catch up to him once he was at the third floor.

I cursed under my breath and hurriedly tried to think up some way to make the brute stop.