Chris and his troops were welcomed home by Mia, Cid and many villagers. People were very excited but this was nowhere near the welcome they had received back when they eliminated the first Kunall scout party.

[It would appear Gnolls can't compare to Kunalls.] Chris thought.

He received a short report from Cid but decided to hold an official post battle meeting at night. A messenger had arrived a little earlier saying the battle against the Kunalls was a success and the troops were due back in a few hours.

As always Mia was farseeing and had already prepared accommodations for the wounded. A mid-size tent was enough as there were few that had serious wounds. Most only had cuts and need to apply a mixture of herbs with a bandage.

An area south of town was designated as a cemetery. The ceremony was simple, but Chris promised to do better in the future.

Chris suddenly heard cheers from east of town. [It seems Titus is back].

As he had guessed, the welcome was better than the one he got.

[Damnit Titus, look at you pretending not to enjoy all the attention! You big fat poker-faced liar! Ah! Even Mia is smiling!]

Chris grew worried. [It couldn't be people like him more than me... Right?]

With Titus back everyone was assembled and the post battle meeting could take place.

"Titus, you just got back, give us your report." Said Chris.

"Very well my Lord." Chris felt his lord's gaze was a little weird today. "The scout party was eliminated. Two Kunalls managed to flee from the boulder trap area. Our soldiers chased them and killed them both as they were already weakened. Unfortunately, they could still defend themselves. We had two casualties. One soldier and his horse were killed together by a wild swing. And another soldier broke his arm when he fell after his horse was killed. His life is not in danger." Titus paused here and suddenly kneeled."I am sorry my Lord! You were right, we needed more hunters, I underestimated my opponent!"

Chris sighed. He was of course disappointed they had lost a soldier, but if he didn't know it before, the fight against Kunalls made sure he did: you can't expect a perfect battle with zero casualties all the time.

"Stand up Titus, this time your decision was ultimately for the best. As you know, our city was threatened on multiple front today. We needed the soldiers and hunters. However remember that no plan is perfect, always leave room for the unexpected." Reminded Chris.

"Yes my Lord!" Titus finally stood up and finished his report. "All the bodies have been cleaned as usual and the Kunall axes have been delivered to the blacksmiths for processing."

"Good, Cat please make your report." Said Chris.

"Alright. We fought against 300 Gnolls, all should be dead. We have lost three soldiers and five soldiers were seriously injured, fortunately they are no longer in danger and they should make a full recovery in a few weeks.

The workers have now moved all the Gnolls bodies to the forest, and the battlefield is now clean.

I recommend cleaning the whole northern forest of Gnolls to avoid another similar attack."

Titus joined in "Very well, I will send tomorrow a few scouts to find their dwellings."

"Won't that be risky for them?" Asked Chris, he didn't want to loose any more people.

"Hehe, don't worry my Lord." Said Berg with a big smile. "Gnolls live in the forest, their eyesight is not bad, but because of the limited visibility they rely on sound and smells to find preys. Titus' scouts are very well trained they won't make a sound... And we still have our Goddess' boon. Our scouts are some of the best in the world! Unless they are in the open no one will find them!"

Chris was enlightened "That's right! Haha, who knew that goddess could be useful. Well then go ahead. And be thorough, don't miss a single Gnoll dwelling!"

"Yes my Lord!" Said Titus.

Chris turned his attention to Cid and said "Your turn."

"The undeads were summoned skeletons. We believe they are protecting something inside. It is most likely the base of a necromancer." Said Cid.

"You said they are summoned undead. Are there other kind of undead in the world? And how do you differentiate?" Wondered Chris.

This time it was Mia who answered. "Undeads can appear naturally in the world, for example Banshees, Wraith, Draugr, Gouls and so on. Any living being can be turned undead as long as very extreme conditions are met. And all creatures, once turned undead belong to Nethys. The only god who did not create a new race but "recycled" others.

Undead can also be summoned by a necromancer. Necromancers are beings, of any race, that made a deal with Nethys. They use crystals like those to animate the dead." She took out the crystal Cid obtained from the skeletons."They are grey crystals containing death energy."

Mia noticed Chris' worried expression. "Don't worry, necromancers are very rare. Not just anyone can make a deal with Nethys and even if they did their survival is very unlikely as most of them are hunted." She paused to gather her thoughts and continued. "It was a long time ago, but I also read that every necromancer has to go through a trial to increase his power. And that most Necromancers would succumb to their greed and arrogance during that trial. That's all I remember, I was very young at the time and reading a book from my father's library."

Chris imagined a little and cute version of Mia in a little dress with her little backpack. [So cute...]

"A-Are there other kind of crystals?" Now this was something that interested Chris. If the crystals contained mana and could be used to even animate the dead... What about the other kinds?

"Yes, one kind for each element and energy." She answered. "Human mages love them as we have a very low amount of mana in our bodies, especially compared to elves and fairies. That's one of the reasons there are so very few human mages. But my knowledge is only second hand. This is the first time I am holding a mana crystal. They are very rare. I recommend keeping those we find to sell to other races later on."

"Thank you everyone. This was a hard day, I suggest we all get some rest. And tomorrow we'll visit the cave and decide on our next steps."

With this the meeting was over, and everyone left Mia's tent.

Chris went back to his tent and was lost in thoughts for a while.

[I already knew it but I can't ignore it anymore. We have a limited amount of people. Our enemies are all strong and we'll loose people in each fights. Building migthy fortifications will protect our soldiers. But what would happen in an open fight against an army of ten thousand Kunalls? What would happen if thousands of dragons attacked? What if our ennemies have powerful mages?

We need to prepare more kinds of poisons! We need to develop better traps and weapons! We need to take advantage of those mana crystals!] Chris paused there and with a creepy smile said: "We need to be sneakier and even more shameless!"