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Chapter 35 - Blood and bone

Riin's POV

The Lone Isles west coast, Lost region - late summer.

I had let the waves of the night carry me along the shore, as morning came I started to slowly row over the crossing to the cost of The Lone Isle, by midday the boat hit the rocky shoreline. The timer is down to five minutes and I'm now just sitting here and staring at a shiny red spider egg, according to the status it's it now called a [Blood Spider Egg]. Soon the sound of the egg hatching can be heard among the sound of the waves hitting the shore.

Familial link with [Blood Queen Spiderling] has been established.

As the message popped up in my mind's eye, the ‘small’ spiderling turned to stare at me, or I think that it is trying to stare at me… I mean, it has freaking eight eyes! How am I supposed to know where it is looking? While I say ‘small’ it would not be wrong to place it at the size of a rabbit, so I guess while it is a small spider it is bigger than small game. It's body reminds me of the black widow spider, the head seems to be formed of bone mass just like the legs, it's ‘back’ has what seems to be plates of hardened chitin on it, protecting it from any attacker that might use its softer back as a way to bring harm to it, if I didn't know any better I would say that the baby spider has learn from its mother's mistakes… But that would just be insane.

A voice entered my mind, or not really a voice as much as a single word, the thing that mattered the most for the being before me.

“Hunger”

While crude in its way, the word said still made sense to me. I pulled out a piece of smoked meat and placed it in front of my new companion. It's small front legs moved to pull in the meat, after poking its fangs into it, two new words entered my mind.

“Not prey.”

Ah, smoked meat, while being food does not meet the standard for a spider to feed from it. That put me in a bit of a dilemma, the fact that I had no fresh meat at hand.

“Hunter.”

As if sensing my dilemma, the spiderling provided the answer, it was and is a hunter, even as a newborn, I had only one advice to give, no, more than a advice, it was an order to be followed without fail.

“Do not die.”

In response to my answer as new word came.

“Understood.”

Faster than I would have thought possible for that small a creature, it ran of into the forest in front of me, as I lost sight of it, I realised that I had no chance of finding it again. Just as that thought entered my mind, an immediately understanding of how fare and in what direction it was came over me, I see, so this is the familiar link created from magic when I branded the egg itself…

After coming to the conclusion that I could do birthing but wait for the little one to return to my side I decided to set up a camp at the cost, with that decided, I dragged the boat onto the shore and after a hell of a battle of swearing and a lot of crude curses, I finally got it to rest upside down against one of the bigger trees. I now had what could only be said to be a very simple dwelling, but for the night, it would do. Picking up stone and making a small pit in the ground, I got fallen sticks and lit a fire. Time for some sea food!

After a light meal of clams and the meat from small crabs, midday had come and the sun was high in the sky. Checking on my shoulder and redoing my bandage with some trouble, I decided to walk down along the southern coastline. After a half hours walk a message popped up for me.

Familiar link has granted you, [Blood Knowledge] [9]

My walk slowed down to a stop as I looked the message over once more. So, the little one had killed something and I had gained [Blood Knowledge] from it, even if I have yet to find the use for the knowledge, I know that it is somehow connected to [Blood Magic] in one way or another. After that I continued my down the coast, picking up clams along the way and throwing them into a makeshift shoulder backpack made from a piece of linen that I got from mothers drawer, keeping the linen wet and the clams fresh, I continued my walk.

Over the span of four hours I got my [Blood Knowledge] to twelve, go forth my little one, bring me back knowledge! How nice it was to do nothing other than take a walk and still gain something from it. Still I was under the impression that spider and snakes are the type of animal that eat few times during a month, perhaps I was wrong? But then again the bigger the animal the more it need to eat to outway the energy it burn during its hunt for food, so maybe four meal a da-

Familiar link has granted you, [Blood Knowledge] [13]

Forget I said anything… Keep on eating to your hearts contents as long as you leave some food for me.

After five hours of walk I reached a river flowing down from the mountain at the centre of the island, a quick sip showed that it was freshwater, I quickly filled up my water pouch and took my fair share of the free running water. After having gotten my fill, I turned around and made my way back towards the campsite.

Familiar link has granted you, [Blood Knowledge] [14]

Familiar link has granted you, [Blood Knowledge] [15]

Really now, how much are you going to eat in a single day…

Ellette’s POV

Flood Village, Flinty region - Early Fall.

Master has been gone for five weeks now, I'm left to help with taking care of masters house together with masters mother, madame Elisa. Lark too has left together with masters father, Sir Raval, with orders to take care of his needs from madame. When Lark left master was asleep, but I think that Lark will be alright since master told us to protect Sir Raval and madame Elisa with our lives if it came to that. So, even if she left without telling master, I think she will be forgiven, I hope she will at least.

I'm awoken by the gentle hands of madame Elisa shaking my shoulder and calling my name with a motherly voice. I fight hard to keep the tears back, treating me so kindly even if I'm just a filthy slave. Our morning goes with meeting up with masters fiancée, miss Ailith, of almost four years old and her mother, going to the to the forest edge to look for useable herbs and edible plants. It seemed as miss Ailith is learning the herbalist craft from madame Elisa, but what do I know of such things.

I miss Lark she is my only friend, madame Elisa is very kind and sweet to me unlike any other owner I have ever met, but she is masters mother, not my friend. I hope Lark is okay, I miss her, I even miss master, just a tiny bit.

Riin's POV

The Lone Isles, Lost region - Early Fall.

I have gone and done it… Of all the things that I could possibly forget, I fucking went and forgot the most important thing in the life of a loner, yes, I forgot the fucking spices… I mean how could I go and do such a thing? The spider which I have yet to give a name is just out there eating its way in small animals and what not, for over a month I have had a steady increase of [Blood Knowledge] that has as of now reached [50], yeah… That thing is a eater alright.

In the weeks after I arrived here, i have made it all around the island, that alone took me a week to make it back to the small ‘boat house’ that i made on the first day of me getting here. For seven days I walked along the coast line, trying to get my bearings of the island. The northern half is a dense forest, that cover most of the base of the mountain, except a small area towards the south, along the river that flows from within the forest, most likely coming somewhere from the mountain. The wildlife so far has been the normal forest wild, I did meet a single bear, but kept my distance from it, as I was no need to have it killed, when I had no chance of getting it back with me to the camp.

The second week was spent along the river, which led to a cave entrance after a full day's walk. The river flowing out from within the cave itself, so my guess is that the source is deeper in the mountain somewhere. After my little camping trip in The Underworld, I really did not have any strong desire to travel down into the cave and most important no reason to, as I had all the food and fresh water that I would need, for the time being.

The third week, was spent on me getting to know the mountain a bit better, and at the end of the week, my hard work up and down the mountainside paid off. On the north-eastern side of the mountain above the shade of the thick forest, a small village or just enough to count it as a cluster of houses, was carves out from the mountain rock itself. From the bottom of the mountain a staircase was also cut out of the mountain, most of all it reminded me of some fantasy dwarven village or something along does lines. Walking up the stairs lead me to a larger building in the form of a temple, meaning it had the large pillars carved out on each of a heavy looking wooden door, the wood itself looked rotten but were reinforced with a form of metal, most likely iron. Along the stairs leading up a fine cut channel with flowing water was cut out of the ‘wall’ that made up the one side of the stairs, following the stairs up, past the temple led me to a ‘outcropping’ near the top of the mountain which held its own little freshwater lake from where the water flowing.

I spent the fourth week bringing my supplies from the boat back to the ruin village, exploring the abandoned houses, many of them was simple holes with a higher level for a makeshift bed, a small tunnel leading from the one side of the bed and to the outside making all warm air from the fireplace flow underneath the bed, creating a warm surface to sleep on. Making even the coming winter seem as a thing that could not be that hard to overcome even in this abandoned place. Checking out the nearby surrounding forest, where to my great surprise and joy I found a hot spring, meaning that the ‘lone’ mountain might at some point in time have been a volcano or at least have an underground water flow close to magma. That made me wonder how that happened since we saw no lava or a great increase in heat when we were digging in the Stoney Mountains… After a great deal of think and getting nowhere, I came to the conclusion that this world's ‘core’, that is if it even have one and earth's must be at different depths, yep, leaving it at that.

The village itself also had its own primitive smithy with its own forge, even if it seemed a bit weathered by the passing of time. So if I did get the great urge to go digging in the ground again, after my trip to The Underworld, I had a place to process the ores and work with the metal. The tool was just in need of some cleaning and a few of them needed some new handles.

Another find was a small ‘cave’ that was cut into the side with the most shade during the day, I decided to think of it as the storage house for the longer lasting foods. After a great effort on my part and hours on hours of looking around the forest and that darn mountain cave, I had to my great joy secured a minimal amount of spices and rock salt from the cave on the west side. Other than some rather large bats the trip to find out if the cave had the right conditions to create or from salt, it was a easy and uneventful trip. The hours spent staring at the forest floor was likewise relaxing and I can even claim to have enjoyed them a tiny bit.

With a larger than fisted hand rock salt and a few strong tasting plants hanging to dry, I found myself in a good mood as I went to the hot spring to take a relaxing bath after a hard weeks work, - not that I did not bath the other days, just that I restrained from using the hot spring to much as it left me open to any surprise attacks. So, while I was soaking in the steaming hot pool and enjoying the sight of the setting sun colouring the sky in a fine purple, my happy mind quickly got turned into a very confused state as my little one returned to me… Or, something like that is what I would have liked to have said, but the word ‘little’ could not in any shape or form describe the being before me now.

Before me, on one of the larger rocks surrounding the hot spring, stood a tree feet something high eight legged, eight eyed blood red spider. With its pure bone like front legs and dripping fangs it looked like something out of a horrorshow. If I had not sensed it approach me with the familiar link, I would not have known it was there, even with me never lowering my guard and keeping an eye on my surroundings, I had not heard it get this close to me. That to me proved just how strong the ‘monsters’ of this area was and just how much I had yet to learn, in a world without technology, where all that counted was your own senses. A smile formed, just thinking about how much stronger my own awareness had become and how long the road to master is was, yes, I'm still young.

The bath ended with the spider starring at me as I stepped out and wrapped a towel around my hips, we began our way up the stairs.

The following days went with me getting a stock of food in forms of meats and vegetables. With the leftover pots in the houses, I made small containers of packed potatoes and onions, some wild carrot and a few edible wild berries, that were put in the smaller clay pots. Slowly the sixth week passed and the preparations was done, a large ‘gave’ was dug and wood was slowly getting burned into its longer lasting cousin, charcoal. The wood that ‘survived’ was used in the small fireplace inside the house I had chosen to stay in. The warm coming from the burning wood helped the skins and pelts that I had hug to dry. Thanks to the little one, I had a good supply of hide from the animals it had killed during the weeks it was away, all I had to do was convey that I wanted it to show me the ‘fallen prey’, that alone had taken me quite some time to get it to understand. But after finally understanding my point it had run off with a ‘follow’, to say it was spread around the forest would be to say a plain crash could be contained in one's front yard. I'm say this now I spent a over a week just getting to all the different, kill spots.

Almost nine weeks have passed since I arrived at the island, I finally get to see one of the unknowns of this small village, a sealed iron door, after all my travels around the island, this place was the only spot on this island that held any sign of civilization. As the morning sun bathed the mountain in the warm glow, I was staring at the massive door that blocked my part to the place with I'm sure was some form of temple. With the winter closing in the air is slowly getting colder, so for now I want to see if there is anything inside this sealed off part.

Elisa’s POV

Flood Village, Flinty region - Late fall.

It has been nine weeks since Raval and my sweet boy left, the letter that I revived this morning was disturbing… war is coming. According to Raval’s letter, the lands of the south is coming together and when that happens war always follows. All weapons craftsmen has been called to the nobles homes to start producing weapons for the new recruits that will soon fill the front. I can only pray that my boy stays out in the wildness, lost to all, I don't wish him to see the coming battle up close, no mother wishes that for their child. War, at such a time… my hand has unconsciously found its way down to my stomach, slowly running circles over the small life growing in there.

I hope our new addition to the family will not be born in a time of war, but that seems to be a fragile hope to cling on to in this time. A cup of steaming warm the is put in front of me, Ellette gives a small smile before she returns towards the downstairs, properly going to clean or do something. I leave her be she seems more at ease doing something than sitting still, even when I tell her not to over do it, she only becomes restless sitting down, so best to leave her to do what she seems happy about. I cast a fleeting look at the letter once more, before putting it down in the drawer, I don't need the stress it will add. I know Raval and Lark should be safe while marking weapons. While I have no idea what my sweet boy is up to out there, I can only pray to the god of the wild to keep him safe from harm.

Riin's POV

The Lone Isles, Lost region - Late Fall.

After hours a hammering away at the massive doors I finally get a breakthrough, the doors slow start to open as I push with all my might.

You have entered The Sealed Temple. You have gained +50 experience.

Huh? Oh who cares… getting my back straight after almost breaking it from all the pushing, I get a ‘shit just hit the fan’ feeling. Why? You might ask. Well, it might be the countless glowing pair of eyes staring back at me from within the darkness or the fact that even with the sun in the sky the inside is not showing any signs of lighting up.

“Prey?”

The word is more of a question then a statement.

“Hell, if I know.”

In this case I'm glad that I had started to carrying my swords with me everywhere, getting a strong grip on the handles, I take a step into the darkness before me. The sounds of bones rattling and far out cries of war sounds as I step inside, staring back at me from the shadows is skeleton after skeleton, armed with swords and spears and a few wooden shields. All of them staying within the darkness of the temple, I wonder if it got sealed for a reason?

“Let's hunt us some bones.”

… Great now I'm starting to talk to the little one.

The sprint into the darkness and the horizontal swings of the blades, followed by the sounds of bones breaking into pieces on the stone floor, the ‘clinking’ of the weapon sliding away into the mass of approaching enemies. From the sprint into a spin, aiming for the necks, the sound of rattling as more circles around me, soon I'm surrounded by eyes glowing in the darkness. I feel a freedom in the endless waves of swords, spears and the shields being bashed towards me. The amount of bones on the floor is slowly and steadily growing, the sound of droplets of blood hitting the cold floor is drowned in sound of the crashing sound of shatters bones crushing underneath countless feet. The drops of sweat the runs down the chin and the fleeing of the sting as flesh is cut, all of it screaming to the body ‘I'm hurting!’, yet the sea of attackers keeps coming and coming, slowly and steadily pushing the body to the brink of destruction. In the endless slaughtering of countless attacks the sound of my heavy breath and laughter is mixed with the sound of the ‘screaming’ whispers of the undead.

The chilling of the air and the feeling pure terror clings to anyone in the surrounding area, yet none of the members locked in mortal combat feel it as the endless battle continue. The sun has long since disappeared behind the horizon and the moon is now the only witness to the battle of will, the soft almost unnoticeable glowing in the eyes clouded and on the edge of conciseness is all that is testament to the burning will in the boy.

It hurts to breath, it hurts to even move, it burns as I twist around and block an attack coming from the side. My legs gives away under the stress, my knee hitting the floor filled with shards of bones, the feeling of the skin breaking. Yet, I don't know if the blood is mine from now or mine from before, I have long my sense of awareness of when I spilled that pool or this pool of blood and the scent of my sweat tells me that I have long since overused it, if the shearing jolts was not a warning. While slow and in itself rather useless alone, the mount gathered here borders on the insane, I can only keep this up for a bit more, time to clear a way out of here. Slowly with unsteady legs I force my used body to move, one step, two steps, slowly I inch closer to the door. My world has begun to become a blurred version of its former self, nothing is standing still even the ground has desired to start moving as if was the sea. The cold night wind of the outside greet me as I stumble on to the pathway and unsteadily down the stairs into the house with a half dead fire and a ready made bed. Wood… I need to place wood in the fireplace or I will get sick the cold wind and the layer of sweat coating my body. With a great deal of concentration and half assed cursing, I finally get the pieces of wood into the fireplace. A quick once over of my body tells me that none of my wounds are fatal and with that out of the way, I fall unconscious onto the fur covered bed.

Messages have exited fix amount, now compiling the incoming amount. You have slain [Skeleton - Warrior] x50 by doing so you have gained a combined amount of 2.500 experience. [Blood Knowledge] has increased to [100], [Blood Knowledge] has reached its maximum amount. You have slain [Skeleton - Spearman] x30 by doing so you have gained a combined amount of 1.500 experience. [Blood Knowledge] has reached maximum amount.

[Blood Knowledge] exciting amount has been transferred to [Knowledge: Blood Mark], [Blood Mark] has evolved into [Binding: Blood Seal]. [Binding: Blood Seal] uses [Blood Knowledge] [100] to bind the blood of the sealed to the will of the caster. Blood becomes the scaffold that control the body itself.

…

“The real in fucked up thing is that even if I got eighty of them down, the fact is that there were countless more.”

The little one has been sitting on the wall for a while now, staring who knows where with its many eyes. Since it is my sole companion in this place I might aswell talk to it, not that I expect an answer. On the holder hand it seems that what I knew as [Blood Mark] is really called a [Blood Seal] or at least its true form is [Blood Seal]. So in conclusion to that, even if I ‘learn’ a spell it might be a misunderstanding of the ‘true spell’, but the [world] seems to acknowledge that I in parts understand the spell or have a vague understanding of the mechanics of how it works. It seems that casting the spell will require [Blood Knowledge], so working with the fact that not all spells cost mana… There was this manga I once got my has on where the main character was fighting using his spirit energy as a base for releasing his spells.

You have gained a more complete understanding of what [Mana] is made of. [Mana] stat has been evolved into it more pure form [Spirit Energy]. By understanding [Mana] and [Spirit Energy] you have gained +2 [Wisdom].

Well, this is getting more and more interesting as we go on. With regards to all those skeletons the must be guarding something valuable, so once I get them down I will have myself some fine loot waiting for me, but for now I need some goddamn food I'm fucking starving and a bath.

A day's rest and a good meal and I was once more in front of the temples doors, as I had suspected, the skeletons had not moved from the darkness within the temple grounds, as I stood there and stared at them all they did in return was stare back. A last check on the condition of my swords and I was ready to go and bash in some skulls, heh, in the most literal sense of the word. My breath is coming out in short huffs, my heart is breathing so loudly that is it all I can hear, sweat and blood is getting mixed up as it runs down my body, yet I can't stop grinning like a darn fool. Slowly I trim away at the mass of bones blocking my way, day and night, all I think of is killing the enemy that is in front of me.

Messages have exited fix amount, now compiling the incoming amount. You have slain [Skeleton - Warrior] x50 by doing so you have gained a combined amount of 2.500 experience. [Blood Knowledge] has reached its maximum amount. You have gained +2[Strength] and +2 [Agility] by continuing to push your body to its limits.

How long has passed? A week? Two weeks? More? I can't tell, all I know is that it is winter and the snow is slowly falling, covering the mountain in a layer of white. Winter mean that another year has passed and I will be twelve…

Messages have exited fix amount, now compiling the incoming amount. You have slain [Skeleton - Warrior] x20 by doing so you have gained a combined amount of 1.000 experience. [Blood Knowledge] has reached its maximum amount.

It's getting harder… With the increase in space they more faster than before, it's getting increasingly difficult to dodge their combined attacks, even if they lack any form of teamwork.

Messages have exited fix amount, now compiling the incoming amount. You have slain [Skeleton - Warrior] x10 by doing so you have gained a combined amount of 500 experience. You have slain [Skeleton - Spearman] x5 by doing so you have gained a combined amount of 250 experience. [Blood Knowledge] has reached its maximum amount.

Small cuts litters my whole body, but I'm starting to get a body finely tuned by and for combat, my own reflexes and the speed in which my body retracts is starting to equal themselves out, meaning I'm starting to move more like my old self. The little one has been hunting in the nearby area for a short while now, but as of how much is has been killing and eating, I don't know since I haven't gotten any message for a while now.

Messages have exited fix amount, now compiling the incoming amount. You have slain [Skeleton - Spearman] x5 by doing so you have gained a combined amount of 250 experience. [Blood Knowledge] has reached its maximum amount.

I encountered a new kind of skeleton today, a more heavily armoured one with a halberd as a weapon, it took me for a surprise and I had to get out of there before getting hurt, I only got five other skeletons down before having to retreat… It's bugging me, my lack of skill. But as of now that's problems has to wait as I'm running out of smoked meat and my storage is almost empty, so it's time to do some hunting. As night falls I move out, in the cover of the dark I begin my search for prey, while moving towards one of the small lakes near the ‘village’ I spot the trail of a group of wild boars, I begin my stealthily walk towards the lake. A short walk after and my works pay off in from of a group of seven boars and that is not counting the small… Piglets? Are they even called piglets when it's a boar? Or is it a boarding?… Yeah, let's go with piglets for now.

Drawing my bow I wait and after getting a clean shot for the side of one of the boars I shoot, the arrow goes straight into the hearth and only a high pitched whine of surprise, is left as it drops dead. The rest runs off in a mass of grunts and whines of confusion, leaving their dead companion behind.

You have slain a [Boar] by doing so you have gained 50 experience. [Blood Knowledge] has reached its maximum amount.

The trip home is the hardest part as I have to drag the fucking thing behind me, but as the sun stars the rise I finally make it to the village. Dropping the boar next to my large outdoor campfire, I get to work. A few hours has passed and the meat is looking like it will be enough to last me for at least the winter time. Now time to deal with the problem at hand, the skeletons with the heavy armour and halberds.

At my count there is around twenty ‘normal’ skeletons and ten of those other fuckers. If I deal the the easier ones first, I can focus all my attention on the more dangerous ones afterwards. For now I will focus on avoiding them the best I can and if given the chance I will test their amours strength.

Messages have exited fix amount, now compiling the incoming amount. You have slain [Skeleton - Warrior] x10 by doing so you have gained a combined amount of 500 experience. You have slain [Skeleton - Spearman] x10 by doing so you have gained a combined amount of 500 experience. [Blood Knowledge] has reached maximum amount.

It took me two weeks to clean out the remaining ones, two weeks of fearing for my life and running around in random patterns as not to get hit by their large swings and a good amount of lying flat in the floor to avoid more hits. Yet even with all that one of them managed to slash my back, leaving me with a long cut from my left shoulder plate and down to the right side of the ending of my rips. By pure luck the force of the hit and my jump to get away from the swing worked in my favour and while the wound hurt like hell, it was not life threatening. Even so I spent a week resting and applying a healing mix of herbs and some long baths in the hot springs, as I hoped that the minerals in a hot spring, was somewhat the same as in my old world.

By my counting I have so far killed of around one hundred ninety skeletons in this room alone, leaving me with ten heavily armed ones, they must be some form of last stand to whatever they are guarding. I need more power to break their armor as the only thing that has worked in killing them off is cutting of their darn head, [Bloodlust Aura] has no effect on them, must be since they are unable to feel fear as they are dead. As of now I'm in a staring contest with ten armed skeletons, they stare at me from within the confines of their ‘area’ and I stare at them from the outside, looking for anything that might help me kill them. A few days have passed like this and I'm not that much closer to finding an answer other than overpowering them with pure force… And let's face it a fully armoured body versus a kid is not going to brood well for the kid, me that is. So, as my old teacher used to say, ‘If you can't beat them, it means that you are lacking in strength and need to train more. So what are you laying on the ground for boy, get up!’. The sound of laugher reach my ears, ah, I'm the one laughing, yes that old man had his way of speaking that's for sure, so let's train.

Endurance, speed, raw strength that is what I need to kill my enemy, so that is what I will push myself to get more of. The snow is slowly falling and the air is getting thinner the higher up the mountain you go, at the top of the village by the lake I train. Surrounded by snow and cold wind with a small amount of food and a small campfire, I begin to train my body. Push-ups, with rope made from old rope I start on during some intense jump rope workout, I run the top to bottom part of the village and back again to the top. I start doing longer and longer runs, slowly I lower my intake of food each time I find that I can do a push-up / run training section and feel that I have energy left. I train my balance my standing on my hands and doing push-ups. Training, training, train to get stronger than ever before, it's all I can think of. My stats improve slowly as I begin breaking down my body, just to rebuild it again.

The sun is shining down on my as I take my run along the shore, two and a half day I can the length of the whole island in, I takes me a week to walk around. The wet slippery rocks and soft forest floor, none of it seems as challenging as it did before. Over the course of a half year I have made my body a fine tuned machine with an amazing reaction time, so much so that even if my foot should slip as I jump along the wet rocks I'm fast enough to find my footing before losing my balance. All my muscles are fine rebuild from scratch, after intense training to build up stronger ones. The little one resides inside the cave on the south side of the mountain, after locating it, I left it to become stronger aswell, feed and grow. Now that I have improved this body of mine to the limit of what can be done to a child's body without destroying or damaging my growth, it is time to see if I have improved at all compared to my enemy.

Once more I'm in front of the temple with the same undead hollow eyescockest staring back at me. My swords in hand, I spring to attack. A quick stab straight for the jawbone of the one closest to be, a twist of my hand and the force of the strike is directed toward the bare neck vertebrates of the skeleton. That is all I get as the blade of a halberd makes its way toward my head, I dodge, jumping back and landing outside their area I chance target and moves to attack a new enemy, same tactic, clear a way to reach the vertebrate and ends its so called life before it has the chance to attack me.

As I repeat the new way of attacking my window of attacking and killing my enemy grows smaller and smaller as they starts to know what I'm up to. Five to go, the floor is a mess, broken bones and parts of the floor and pillars is laying around the place.

Wait… The pillars! I can use them to remove some of them from the fight, springing into action I run towards the two to the left and get their undivided attention, aggro I believe the word is in games that makes you fight a group of monsters at the same time, aggro - it's something like gaining the attention of the monster and keeping it on you. I slip behind the pillar and do a ‘Z’ from the wall to the pillar to the wall where I let myself lose momentum and drop down onto the head of one of my attackers, crashing in the helmet and head at the same time, as of now all I can do is leave my sword sticking out of the helmet of the dead skeleton. A quick dodge and a dash towards to one left alive and bone meets bone in a crushing wave of force, the losing part drops down, tree to go.

Getting my sword back from the helmet and running like a mad I make it to the other end of the room. Repeating my success with the pillar I kill to more, my swords are looking a bit beat up, but it is bone after all. Now, I'm face to face with the last survivor of the two hundred skeletons, that stood in my way at the beginning. Almost an entire year has passed with me killing and training and killing some more, not that I mind it. But it is good to see an end to things, as I sprint to attack and the halberd is brought down towards me, my half years worth of training myself to a near death and vomiting point has finally paid off as I redraw my swords from its broken-in head. You have slain a [War Skeleton] x10 by doing so you have gained 1.000 experience! [Blood Knowledge] has reached its maximum amount.

All there is left as a trace of their existence here, is the broken bones and old rusted armor, nothing else remind the world that two hundred undead lurked within this locked up and forgotten temple. In a way I wonder from where they came, was they from this lost and misplaced village or from a different place altogether? Not that answers will be mine anyway, not now at least. For now I need to look at my reward, the thing that they were guarding even in dead.

My feets are sleeping and my body has grown cold sitting on the floor, the coldness of the wind stopped bothering me a while back, all is nothing compared to this, me reward.

Elisa’s POV

Flood Village, Flinty region - Early fall.

Just over half a year has passed since Raval and my sweet Riin left to do what they must. Raval, called by the noble of our land to do his ‘duty’ for the kingdom and my sweet boy to strengthen himself, as he called it. I don't know why that boy needed to become strong in the way he was looking for, but the look in his eyes told me to let him go, that even if I clung to him and begged, he would need to go. Not bound by a sense of duty but by a single minded need to be better than he was. A hunter from Flinty Village, reported that a few men had died in the Stoney Mountains, bandits they had said. But, they told of the newly found part to The Underworld, the world beneath us, a world of pure darkness. The hunter told that the guards had saved to miners from that endless darkness, a man, that had died in a goblin attack down there and a young boy. Right there I knew, that my boy had seen true darkness, as the hunter told that they had starved and had been forced to eat the underground musrooms and ‘wildlife’, but I knew from story's that no wildlife lived within that darkness or not wildlife as we saw it. My sweet boy, what did you see down there I wonder, what did you expirence for you to return with that look in your eyes? Ah, who am I trying to fool, that boy has never been one to complain and even cry as a infant, always looking always thinking. Do you know my sweet baby boy, soon you will become an older borther, I hope your travels will bring you back to me.

I push myself up and waddle over to the door has the knocking increase in volume.

“I'm coming, I'm coming.”

I open the door just as Ellette comes running down the stairs, a horrified expression painted on her face, silly sweet child, still she wait for me to punish her, I would never. She comes to a stop behind me, as the door fully opens up and gives way to the sight of a man dressed in a chain mail armour and bare the Siegel of Lord Jalim. The man steps back and gives a short bow and greets us.

“Good day, ma'am, young miss.”

“Good day to you as well, how may I be of assistance?”

He makes a quick salute before answering me.

“Lord Jalim, calls all able men to arms for the coming war against the tribes of the desert lands.”

He clears his throat before he continues his little speech. But all that goes through my mind is that my dear husband is now getting send to the battlefield and thank the gods by sweet boy is not here.

… by the kingdom's laws any male is to join in the coming war. By the names on the list of the village elders, two men is to be staying in this household.”

I look at him for a short while, does he not know? That Raval has already been sent to help the lord prepare for the war? We stare at each other for a while before I shake my head to clear my mind.

“Yes, two men live here, my husband and my son, but none of them is to find here, I'm afraid.”

I barely finish my sentence before the young soldier speaks again.

“And why is that so, ma'am.”

I give me a pointed look, to interrupt a person when they themself even demanded an answer. The young man looks behind my quickly to see one of the other two soldiers behind him give him a disapproving look.

“My husband, Raval Torvar has been working together with the rest of the weapons crafter from the isles, for over seven months now.”

The young soldier give an ‘oh’ sound before holding up a hand as to tell me to wait for a moment before running back to the two waiting soldiers were he starts to fumble with some pieces of paper, before he come running back.

“Ah! My deepest apologies ma'am, the papers seems to be misplaced. As for your son then?”

“He left for a short trip for our old logging, a day after his father was called to draft, I-”

My voice cracks, he is out there I know, I know he is out there!

“I have not seen or heard from him since.”

The soldier stares at me and I at him.

“Might ma'am be so kind and to tell us the way so we can go and see if he can be found there?”

I almost laugh, it's not like I'm given a choice in the matter.

“Follow the road towards the flood, and cross

to the outpost from there follow the dirt trail towards the northwest. From there follow the trail half a day, before long you will reach a lone hut in between the threes.”

He give a short nod before turning half around where he stops.

“Thank you for your time and I wish you a good day and will send a prayer for your coming child. Ma'am, young miss.”

With that he turns and leaves with his fellow soldiers, be safe my son.

Riin's POV

The Lone Isles, Lost region - Early Fall.

Books…

Scrolls…

That is the shit those fucking skeletons was guarding, books… Who came up with the idea to let Underdark guard books!? When I find that person I will fucking strangle them to dead! Half a year spent on killing them and training so that I could kill them and what do I get out of my hard work!? FUCKING BOOKS!! That's what I get. Ah, life is so not fair, not at all… Well, I might as well find out what's inside those books since I wasted so much time getting to them.

Winter.

A broken of pillar works as my chair, the light stones as a lamp. These… Books… They are amazing, no unbelievable that is what they are. When I was small mother told me of the other realms that existed out there and these books tells of one of them, the Shadowfell, the realm of the dead. Shadowfell, rules by a deity called the Raven Queen. Home to the eternal undeads known as vampires and the rotten yet ‘alive’ mages of old known as lichs. The books and scrolls speak of a ‘gate’ to the Shadowfell, a way into the realm of the dead even as a living.

Late Winter.

I found it! The so called ‘gate’ it's a spell of a kind a spoken chant and a sacrifice of one's own soul, or part of it. Once the chant is spoken one will be ‘transported’ to the realm of endless night, a shadow of this world. I must prepare!

Food and water, check.

Clothing, check.

Weapons, check.

Random items of use, check.

Little one, check.

Now to make use that all is as it should be and I have read all that I need to know. How I'm ready to go to the realm of Shadowfell, grant me more power, more and more until the world bows before my feet! Ups, I'm getting myself all excited, heh, can't have that. The books tells one to be in a calm state of mind and body, so a form of meditational state I guess. I sit on the floor in the temple forgotten by the world, soon I will to be gone from this world.

Breath in, breath out, deepen the breaths, focus only on the self. Forget the world, forget the sounds of the wild, of the wind. Forget everything. Breath in. Deep breaths. Calm your beating heart. Until all that is left of this world is the soundless darkness, the white calmness, the self.

“Death comes to one and all, it is only right that a piece of me goes ahead, to greet the queen of night.”

Darkness takes hold of me and my world fades away into the nothingness called unconsciousness.By offering a piece of your very self you have gained affinity with, [Shadow]. Magic of the [Shadow] type has been unlocked for use, spell gained, [Shadow Walk].