When I woke up that morning there were two very vivid things clear to me. First I had, had a rather intense dream, not a wet one thankfully but I didn’t remember a thing about it. Second, there was a strange smell and pressure against my face, my nose in particular.

Turns out Akasha’s a little spastic when she sleeps. She was in such an unnatural position with one of her feet in my face. She looked like she was trying to spin to the right while also giving me a roundhouse kick from her right side so she sort of came in on herself at a strange angle.

Managing to pull her to a little more natural position I looked up and got a look at Ashes looking down on me from the cupboard in the room. She seemed amused at my predicament as I didn’t want to wake up Akasha but she was using part of my body as a pillow so I really couldn’t move. Instead, I sighed and angled myself a little so I could look down at the girl using my belly as a pillow.

Leaning my head back I chuckled as softly as I could to myself. “Roomba indeed.” I said finding my thoughts of human pack mentality when it came to their household appliances and how they seemed fitting now. Gently I began to run a single finger down her scalp as I thought on how I’d go about raising her. The responsibility of my whim really coming home in my mind.

I am an idiot, I know. I mean what was I thinking?! Adopting some slave I noticed while in disguise at the black market, I didn’t even leave the damn city right away so now if anyone can connect the girl to the black market I’m certain they’ll realize who I am.

I placed my hand over my face and sighed once more. I felt old… Well, I am around what? 34, 35 years old now? Though I don’t look it and time’s been so warped for me I don’t even know if I’ve been here four years, after all, I wasn’t the best at keeping track of the date back home either. Well, it didn’t matter now. I just had to make sure to be an actual father to this little girl so as to maybe give her back the spark that I saw her eyes didn’t have the first time I had laid eyes on her.

It had been heartbreaking, the hopeless blankness that her eyes and face had. Birr, the thought still sent a shiver of horror down my spine.

My train of thought went around like that, comparing the harshness of this world compared to earth. Though what I did linger a little on was just how humans are almost predictable, no matter the world it seems. That hunger for personal profit and power at the cost of others, how they feel this need to conquer. In this world, it has lead to the rise of gods like Aona and the thoughts of human-centric kingdoms and human supremacy kingdoms like Wolfsguard.

I was stirred out of these brooding thoughts by the light groan from Akasha as she woke. Her eyes opened slowly looking around, I had my eyes closed in a manner that it looked like I was sleeping but I could see just a little in front of me.

Akasha looked at me, then around her seeing that she was using me as a pillow she sat up rather quickly and blushed heavily. She rubbed her face and yawned before looking up at Ashes and smiled before looking confused. She pinched her cheek and let out a little ‘ow’ sound before her face split into an ear to ear grin.

The smile changed a little as if she had come to a realization and then she began to cry. She cried silently and while I did notice the wide smile on her face she still cried like a faucet. It grew to such a degree that I reached over and pulled her down to bury her face in my chest and patted her on the back. She cried after a moment to understand what had happened before she buried her face even more into my chest.

I couldn’t do much else but simply try and be there for her. She hadn’t had that, I figured by how she was reacting now and I wasn’t all that good in these situations, I could only do what I’d feel like I’d want in such a situation. I knew she was happy to have become my daughter to escape that place, I’d just have to make damn sure that she would be happy to be my daughter.

Then I remembered what I and Morice had planned for today and cursed inwardly. Seems I’m going to have to pay Leila a babysitter fee for today as well. I didn’t want to leave Akasha behind like this for not only the first day I had adopted her but also the second day as well. It was kinda new to me, this guilty feeling of not showing Akasha the attention that I wanted her to have from me.

I knew I wouldn’t just love her like a daughter right away, that would be rather insane. Not to mention it would open a round of questions in my head that lead down a road I firmly did not want to get anywhere near. I shook my head and slowly got up, moving Akasha’s head as gently as I could manage.

I looked down at the sniffling girl, all bundled up like a caterpillar after I had wrapped her up in the blanket. That actually made me realize just what snug as a bug meant. I chuckled inwardly as I looked towards the window and saw Dust sitting there in a manner that didn’t draw attention to his more… undead features.

I silently opened the window and let him jump up on my hand. “Hm? Ah..” The sound of her voice made me turn to see the bleary-eyed Akasha staring up from her pillow at me. Though her eyes showed she was maybe just halfway out of dreamland once more.

I looked at her and raised an eyebrow while smiling at her. That seemed to have cleared up her little daze and she grew flushed before burying her head into the pillow. Seems she was as lost as I was when it came to our interaction with each other.

I let Dust fly up to Ashes to preen and nuzzle against one another. That was a can of worms I really wasn’t up to think about so I shook my head and walked over to sit down next to Akasha. “Good morning.” I said gently as I placed my hand on her back, rubbing ever so gently.

She looked up at me and seemed to try and hide a smile by putting her mouth into the blanket around her. I guessed she was happy that yesterday wasn’t a dream, at least I’d think that in her situation. I petted her head with a smile. “You aren’t dreaming little one.” I said gently and my smile turned from a simple line on my lips to a toothy grin as she suddenly lunged up and hugged me.

She hugged me tightly and then began to sob again. My smile turned gentle as I hugged her against me and gently rubbed the back of her head. Back on earth, I had been an older brother, I decided to just be a little more fatherly than a big brother to Akasha. I’d do the best I could for the girl, I guessed that’s really all that fathers can hope for really.

She spent five minutes sobbing and clinging to my clothing as I just sat there and really, I just was there for her. When she had finished she looked up at me, red eyes and a little snot running out of her nose. I groaned rather heavily, though I did so inwardly as I realized I’d have to walk around with a handkerchief or something from now on.

“Th-thank you… f-father.” She said hesitantly as if trying out the word for the first time. She seemed to like it though also seemed a bit too shy or maybe more aptly she was so drawn into herself that it was hard to come out of her shell.

“You can call me, dad, Vlad or father. Whatever works for you little Akasha.” I said with a smile as I leaned down and kissed her forehead and ran the tip of my index finger down her nose before gently tapping my finger on her little button nose.

She giggled a little at that and pushed at my chest. “Stop.” She said giggling before I helped her out of bed and then the two of us changed and got dressed for the day. I had insisted on buying nighttime sleepwear for both of us. For obvious reasons, given I only had a single room though the bed was easily large enough for two grown-ups with a child in between to lie on.

I put on the clothes and armour I had gotten in Deepguard and chuckled as Akasha struggled with a sort of tabard like clothing with a hole just a tad too tight for her head to go through. I ended up having to cut a tiny little cut into it so it could open up and her head could slip through.

We talked about silly things and I told her a few stories of when I was younger. She laughed when I told her of a time when I was a kid and a ravine sort of place that was in the neighbourhood. One time it snowed so much it became filled in only to turn into a sort of anthill and a teenager decided to test out a powerful firework at the bottom. I told her of the sinkhole that had formed and added in a pudgy kid running from the collapsing snowbank as the sinkhole formed for comedic effect. She seemed to love it.

Once we were both dressed and ready I whistled a little and both Ashes and Dust came and landed on my shoulders. I took the ring I had put on one of Dust's talons the night before and placed it on my own finger. I’d have to check out the gains later today.

With that done we made our way downstairs and seeing that no one was around this early beside Aldis and Leila, I asked the older man if I could use his kitchen. He gave me a strange look and insisted on supervising me as I ended up frying up some scrambled eggs of my own recipe.

“A dash of milk, whip the eggs with the milk. Then add in some salt, a teeny tiny bit of garlic, some pepper and wild herbs.” I said as Akasha had wanted me to tell her what I was doing. Aldis also seemed rather interested in what I was doing.

“Now you can put a slice of bread into this to soak up the egg before you fry it, or simply put it on the pan and scramble it up. Since this is your first time having this I’ll do both.” I said with a smile at the gluttonous look in Akasha’s eyes as I began to fry up some egg bread and scrambled eggs on the side.

When Morice entered and Aldis got through my patience I ended up cooking this dish for all of us and then we sat there in the inn proper at the first table out of the kitchen. Akasha seemed to really enjoy it though I missed garlic salt and citrous pepper, that was what made this dish so good, at least to me. Morice didn’t seem to be much of an egg man though Aldis did comment on the dish since I wasn’t a cook like him I took his hints on how to use the pan.

It wasn’t as easy to cook on a frying pan as it is back on earth, hell there is little to no use of cooking oil before the pan is used. Instead, it was like this buttered up water that he used that gave the eggs a strange taste. I’d have simply gone with butter alone to grease up the pan but what did I know? I didn’t own a successful inn after all.

When we all were letting out sighs of contentment after the meal I looked towards Leila. “Could I bother you to look after Akasha for a few hours?” I asked her and the glare made me look at her sheepishly.

“Isn’t she supposed to be your daughter? Why don’t you take care of her hm? She was so scared yesterday.” She said huffing at me before looking at me with accusation. “And who was that large armoured man that came down the stairs?” At this Aldis also looked at me and I gulped. I wasn’t all that ready to lie my ass off at such a short moments notice.

Thankfully Morice chimed in. “Oh That is a friend of Vlad's, he was in the area and since I and he were going hunting.” He began looking at me and then at Leila. “He asked him to look after Akasha to keep her safe, though he won’t be here today as he left shortly after all the fuss yesterday.” He said confidently though Leila looked from him to me with dubiousness easily showing in her eyes. She wasn’t buying it.

I gratefully looked at Aldis after he spoke up. “Well, if the girl wants to help me out in the kitchen I’d love for her to keep me company for a little part of the day.” I noticed the gluttonous look that came over Akasha’s eyes at that statement. I figured she thought she’d get to eat some leftovers or sneak a bite or two.

I really had to find out why she ate so darn much, she couldn’t fit all of that into her skinny little body.

“Just keep the little pit away from the food.” I chuckled as I pointed at Akasha who grew beet red from embarrassment. Aldis and I shared a laugh as Leila looked at me with rather obvious annoyance at my comment about Akasha.

“She’s a growing girl, she needs her food.” Leila huffed and the look I shared with Aldis told me Leila had been similar to Akasha at that age.

“That might not be the reason you aren’t married yet is it? They’re afraid you’ll eat them out of house and home?” I joked which made Leila’s face turn into a tomato and myself and Morice had to flee the premises.

--

“Are you sure antagonizing her was such a good idea?” Morice asked me though he had a wide grin and had laughed just as much as me and Aldis had.

“Well if things go well today, I think we can move on tomorrow.” I shrugged while smirking.

“Move on?” Morice asked me as we walked through the market.

I bought a few extra clothes for travel, for myself and Akasha as I walked through it. “Well yeah, though I had promised an adventuring party to maybe go out with them, howver I need to get to Desma as soon as possible.” I said as I stored away a light blue travel cloak that was just the size to fit Akasha.

“Desma? Why there?” He asked me, confusion clear on his expression.

“Well… Remember that troll I told you about?” I asked back grimacing ever so slightly.

“Yeah what about it?”

“Well, you see I owe him. I think he’s headed there since the hunters that took him are, so I’m taking a wild stab at it.” I said shrugging a little, it wasn’t an all together well thought out plan. I can agree to that, though only in my head. My ancestors put pride in being men of their word and coming across as honourable men. That had been ingrained into me as a kid so I guessed it was a part of my nature and besides, Trolgar had saved my life. I at least owed him to try. Right?

Once I had finished shopping we made our way towards the catacomb entrance Morice knew about. “So you ready to test out our minions?” I asked with a wide smirk which Morice gave back though a little weakly.

“Are you sure about this?” He asked me, looking a little worried as he looked around us before we both plunged into the catacombs.

“Not really a hundred percent but I feel we can do this. Besides, I’m rather certain we can get good materials and hopefully I can force this Necroshade to become my minion. Imagine having him as a teacher for the spells and the things neither of us has figured out?” I said which made Morice almost brighten at the thought.

“You think you can? I mean I know you got a good grasp on skeletons and spirits and he does seem to be a spirit. But you know, do you think it’ll work out?” He asked me. He was still a little hesitant which was understandable and so I told him my theory on how to capture the Necroshade with his mind as intact as possible.

He listened intently before smiling a little at me, almost wryly. “Think his mind’s any good?” His question caught me by surprise and I stopped mid-step.

I stood there and thought it all through before groaning loudly. “Considering my luck, he’ll be about as crazy as a vampire in a blood bank.” I spat almost though Morice gave me a funny look as he tried to comprehend what I was talking about.

“You know vampires have been extinct on this continent for almost a millennia right?” He asked me and I restrained my urge to flip him the bird.

It was then that I noticed how utterly silent everything was. Neither I nor Morice had a need for torches as we both had dark vision but still, it was eerie. The grey stones around us had this almost dry yet clammy feeling to them, with very little moisture in the air and what moisture there was seemed almost stale to the point of being almost like thick and stale bog water.

In the very distance, I heard the very occasional scratching or light scrambling sounds but they were very few and the silence that reigned between felt like an eternity.

“Fuck this.” I muttered and summoned the rogue I had upgraded yesterday into a copyright infringement against mortal kombat. I just hoped earth didn’t have a particularly driven and stubborn lawyer that would follow me all the way here. Then again the soulless bastards did have a habit of seeking out such things… I think. Well, they don’t have the best reputation anyway.

Shaking my head of those thoughts I looked at the rouge. His bone “skin” made him look almost like a dried-up mummy and the tattered cowl over his face and the leather armour around his body really did give me scorpion vibes.

I was about to just name him scorpion when I noticed his eyes and how the vampiric fangs I had given him made him not seem like scorpion at all. No, he rather seemed like a messenger of death when I took a step back and took him in, in his entirety. The leather armour had a small tailcoat like factor to it and the hood was a little tipped which gave him an assassin’s creed sort of look. The twin daggers at his waist and bigger forearms with those clawed fingers gave him a dangerous air of almost bestial ferocity contained within.

“Charon” I suddenly said. The rogue looked up at me and tilted his head to the side in question.

“Who’s that?” Morice asked me, just as confused as Charon was. Jubb, the more I thought of it the more it fit to my mind.

“Charon is the ferryman, he takes the dead across the river Styx so that they can go on to their respective afterlives. I feel the name will fit you.” I said with a smile as I placed my hand on Charon’s shoulder.

“If that… is your wish master.” Charon’s voice was so strange. It was this smooth yet deep bassy baritone but almost as an afterthought or after effect? There was something beneath his voice, like a small chorus of whispering voices that one couldn't quite make out. It gave him a rather ominous-sounding voice and I smiled even more. Damn, I’d like to see the face of the one I’d use Charon to deliver a message to. The thought alone made me giddy.

“Go and scout ahead but do not engage unless absolutely necessary. Scouting ahead to warn us of what’s up ahead is your priority.” I ordered and Charon placed both fists against one another in front of his chest and bowed to me before moving deeper into the catacombs.

“Your naming sense is weird.” Morice suddenly pipped up and I had to punch at his shoulder good-naturedly as we both chuckled.

I had no idea why I was so comfortable around Morice and Akasha, perhaps I was trying to use them to substitute my younger siblings? I did miss my family something fierce and despite my ability to be alone for almost months on end, I did crave their company. Four years is a long time to be missing someone you know is alive but you just can’t ever see again.

Once again I shook my head. Where are all these melancholy mood swings coming from?! One second I can joke around and the next I’m thinking of all I’ve lost?! I damn hope this is the corruption thing instead of me just losing my emotional sanity.

Morice, however, noticed my sudden change of mood and looked at me almost with concern. “You all right Vlad?” He said it with such genuine concern I was a little touched. Only a single day and already we had bonded that fast? Was I his Roomba? ...What is it with me and Roomba’s these past two days?!

“Yeah..” I began pausing a little as I scratched at my head. “Yeah just remembered something unpleasant just now. Don’t worry about it.” I said with a soft but weak smile at him.

We stayed quiet as we continued on walking down the catacombs and listening to Charon’s reports when he came back from scouting. Turns out the Catacombs aren’t just big enough to be almost covering the underground of the city, no it seems they even extend almost a kilometre to the west and north of the city as well. “This is ridiculous!” I groaned. “Who needs catacombs that are this freaking big?!” I groused.

“Well the city is well over a thousand years old.” Morice chimed in though he wilted a little under my annoyed glare.

“Yeah, yeah.” I grumbled and waved at Morice to show I wasn’t mad at him. “Though doesn’t that just leave too big a space for us to cover to find this Necroshade?” I then asked him as I kicked a dusty old skull lying in my path. I watched it sail through the air and smash to pieces right at the edge of the thirty or so meters I could see in front of me in the dark.

“Well that is true, but I think if we head towards the Church of the six gods of light, the shade might be somewhere around there.” Morice said and at my raised eyebrow he continued. “You see that is what the story says that when the dreaded Necroshade was beaten his remains were buried face down under the very foundations of the holy church. It was so that the holy energy would always prevent his rise from the grave.”

“Right… but he’s out now so maybe that part of the story is a load of horse shit.” I retorted, oh so elegantly.

“Ok, I’ll give you that, it is weird that the Necroshade is a spirit and that he attacked the market yesterday too. As far as I know, he shouldn’t have any grudge against it.” Morice said with a shrug.

“Hmm, maybe he’s mad?” Charon chimed in and we both looked at him, after jumping back two meters at his sudden appearance. “If he’s been suffering in his grave under the holy energy and only recently got out. I’d say there’s a good chance the Necroshade has been driven insane or is so enraged that his enemies now are all living beings.”

“Huh… you make a good point.” Morice and I both said in unison.

We both grumbled, I didn’t know what Morice was annoyed over, though he also did look worried as well. I, on the other hand, was annoyed due to the very simple fact that given my wondrous strokes of luck as of late the guy would be as insane as the Easter bunny all hopped up on cocaine, speed and pixie dust trying to hump a punch-me-clown.

I stopped and just thought on that surreal visual and shuddered. Jubb, my mind needs a thorough cleaning and sorting out, these visuals I keep getting and thinking off are getting rather distracting. With that cheery thought, I let out Garm and his pack. Morice seeing that decided to let out his own pack of wolves.

I looked on and had to admit that the size of Garm and his pack now was much bigger than the wolves, even bigger than a dire wolf. They were now the size the wargs I had seen in the lord of the rings the two towers movie, easily able to come up to my upper abdomen while standing normally next to me.

Garmur looked from me to the zombie wolves which myself and Morice had decided to dub, dread wolves. He didn’t seem all that impressed by them and snorted a little before looking towards Charon and cocked his head a little to the side before growling at the dread wolves.

With his little display of seniority or superiority Garm and his pack left into the dark halls of the catacombs, the dread wolf pack going the other way.

“So should we try and get our minions to get along?” I asked Morice who gave me a shrug, he seemed rather aggregable to the idea though just like me, he had no idea how to do it properly.

After a long while, walking around almost aimlessly in the catacombs we came upon Morice’s dread wolf pack tearing into a ghoul with a few more scattered around. The pack had torn into them but left only the one they were currently devouring in the worst shape. If I took two or three of them I could have a whole corpse at least... maybe two.

“Oh, Morice do you know anything about anatomy?” I asked him with curiosity as I thought of a way for both of us to learn something together.

“Anatomy? What’s that?” He asked me with a strange look, seems the word hasn’t been very formalized here huh?

“It’s the study of the body and what it is made up of… I think… I’m not really sure about the word as a whole, to be honest.” I admitted as I took the three best looking corpses to the side and lined them up. One was missing its throat and the pectoral muscles, another it’s left arm and the third had been disembowelled with its leg missing as well. “What I’m thinking is if we study how the muscles and organs work it might help you in creating better undead.”

Morice seemed rather interested and I saw that… scholarly glint I guess I could call it in his eyes. We both got to work, flaying and dissecting the corpses as we had an impromptu study session for both of us.

I had no idea the lower intestines were actually that long, I knew they were supposed to be pretty long but that doesn’t really click in your mind until you have actually stretched the damn thing out and seen it with your own eyes.

We ended up spending quite a bit of time walking and pulling out muscle fibres from a leg or hand as we tried to understand the basics of their function between the two of us. I didn’t remember much from my biology lessons in school so sue me. We can’t all know everything we need to succeed in a different world just because we’re thrown into it. That’s just crazy on a weird level that I never got in some of the stories I read.

Like a guy that seemed to just be a normal high school or salaryman and all the sudden, he knows how to make black powder weapons in medieval times. As if knowing what black powder is made up of is just a common thing that everyone knows how to do.

I shook my head to clear it of the last rant my thoughts took me into. They were getting more numerous and distracting. I sighed and spat to the side as I looked at Morice, I had told him last night about most of my life in this world, I had kept everything about my own world as close to the chest as I could, not to mention some choice bits about me now that I didn’t want him to know. For example that if I die, it’ll be permanent if my heart is utterly destroyed since it now acted as my own personal liches phylactery at the moment.

That train of thought made me bring up my character sheet in my mind and I noticed I still had some ability points to spend. I had gained a good windfall when I had charged into the attack at the market and for reaching the threshold level with Death squire.

With a mental click, I added one point into Bone claws as well as liche’s gift. I decided to try and see how bone claws would evolve as I’d yet to add a point to the ability as well. As for Liche’s gift… well, it’s essentially plot armour, right? I had arrogantly thought of myself as some fantasy protagonist before Aona’s betrayal. After that death and the subsequent one after my latest rebirth. Well, there’s a sentence one doesn’t think one would ever truly think.

Bone claws have evolved due to two factors! Bone crafting and defensive carapace lvl. 2 have mutated this ability. With the integration of these factors, bone claws have changed, claws can now be extended while defensive carapace is active. The users bone structure will become harder and changed to accommodate a more defensive bone structure, such as bone armour around the user's heart and vital organs.

What do you wish to name this ability?

Please enter the name: _

I blinked before another notification superimposed itself into my mind.

Lich’s gift has been upgraded! Scanning of users personal effects has completed. Deep steel ring has been chosen as the temporary phylactery of the user and as such will be placed upon the user's finger as the phylactery’s innate power interferes with both storage items as well as soul storage, after all this item now holds a part of the user's soul.

I felt the ring suddenly appear around my right middle finger and I looked at it dumbfounded before the previous prompt came up again and I had to choose a name. I thought on it as Morice and I walked down the halls of the catacombs.

I decided to be a little edgy as these claws would most likely help me in ruining Aona and her ilk. I’d defile everything she had built and bring about the ruin of her church. With a slight start, I realized what I’d call this new ability of mine, though it wasn’t really indicative of what it did, more a constant reminder of my mission on my character sheet, not that I needed it just in case.

Congratulations! Your bone claws have mutated and are now Defilers claws lvl. 1! Please stand by as the ability fully integrates with the user's body.

That last notification made me raise an eyebrow before the pain started. I felt my bones shift and grow almost liquid, even some of the bones I had in my soul storage that I had decided to keep for later were taken. Then I felt my bones change, break, liquefy and harden in their new shapes, my ribs began to connect and close the cabs between them.

My spine grew another layer of almost scale mail like column around my spine, bone flecks infused into my muscles making them harder and tougher as the muscle fibres blended with the bone flecks.

Sufficed to say I was in so much pain I couldn’t even scream, I felt the changes and even seemed to see them happen within my own body before my vision grew faint and then black.

I lost consciousness as the last of the changes finished within my body. The pain seemingly had held me awake only to let me free once it was all done.