I brought out my silver pendant and examined its back. Now that I looked carefully, I did notice a small piece which might be identified as a latch. I prodded and manipulated it in various ways until it finally moved with a light popping sound. The front faceplate of the pendant fell off onto the floor.

The true front of the pendant could now be seen, featuring a dull gray crystal embedded in a unique decorative pattern. Unlike the faceplate, this sight was familiar to me. I knew what this was.

“Are you serious? The Amulet of Anastasis?” I blurted out.

The Amulet of Anastasis was a miscellaneous key item in Spirit of Darkness. It belonged to a mad wizard, Anastasis, after whom it was named. Aanstasis himself was a penultimate dungeon boss, not even counting as a demon general himself. He was remembered by players mostly for his unique boss fight mechanic more than anything.

Anastasis was described in lore as a withdrawn hermit who was deeply devoted to Congeria, God of Chaos. The fact that he worshiped one of the supposedly benevolent deities was one of the first hints that the story was not as black and white as it seemed. He delved deeply into the study of magic in order to discover a path to immortality. The results of his research culminated in his pendant. In a way, it did grant him the power of resurrection.

His boss fight was unique as once he was defeated, he did indeed come back to life. However, it wasn't really “him”, but instead a real human player was summoned to take his place for the second half the fight. It was the only boss encounter in the game where you had to face a human-controlled opponent, and was one of the most iconic parts of Spirit of Darkness. Anastasis's body was resurrected, but as the replacement was controlled by somebody else, could that really count as immortality? It was a method only one drenched in madness would consider a success. Fitting for one known as the mad wizard.

After defeating the human opponent, the player could pick up the amulet as a key item in order to unlock a door further ahead. The immortality seemed to be single-use, as there were no further resurrections after the second stage of the fight. Afterwards the amulet was nothing but deadweight -- a key item with a description, but no other use.

I had no idea why I possessed this item. In the first place, this is a unique item that was made by a very specific person in the game. This new world is vaguely similar to SoD, but how could it have something so precise and obscure? If I consider Toberno's testimony, then the Demon Lord also possess a similar amulet. That shouldn't be possible, as this is a unique one-of-a-kind object. The only possibility I could consider is that these amulets were made by somebody else, perhaps an imitator trying to replicate the original artifact.

I decided I needed a second opinion. For all I knew, perhaps this was a common mass-produced item in this world, and it only looked similar to the Amulet of Anastasis by accident. I should consult Lacerta when I have the chance.

The skull looked at me curiously.

“Kid, are you okay? You seem to be lost in thought.”

“Yeah, it's nothing. I just found some new clues.”

“I worry about you whenever you blank out. Is that something you do often?”

I never considered the fact before. I kept to myself most of my life, so I found it completely natural to doze off in thought or introspection. I assured the skull it was nothing for him to worry. He put a smile on his face.

“Well, if everything is fine, then we should make do and head for the shop. We have business ahead.”

I was suspicious of his sudden upswing of mood. Calvar was not normally that happy about such mundane occurrences.

“What are you so happy about? Did something happen?”

The skull looked disappointed.

“Ah, don't tell me you forgot! Come on, Eren. We're men. We made a promise, man to man. I'm counting on you to get the job done!”

“Sorry, I'm not following,” I answered.

The skull leaned and whispered in my ear.

“You said you'll be my wing-man, right? I'm counting on you.”

I was still clueless about what he was talking about, but quickly began surmising the context.

“Are you talking about that thing with Ferra? I thought you just wanted to talk with her.”

“Subtlety, Eren. You really need to learn about subtlety. Sure, talking would be good, but why not aim higher? I don't have much to lose at this point, so I may as well aim as high as possible!”

I had trouble imagining this going well.

“Calvar, are you seriously going to try courting a living human?”

“What's wrong with that? Ladies dig confidence, you know.”

“You really don't think she'll be bothered by the fact you are a skeleton? Or only a talking skull, at that?”

The skull shrugged.

“Hey, you never know until you try. No need to be a pessimist, Eren. Expand your horizons!”

After much cajoling, I made my way to the general store. Ferra was at her normal spot, lazily resting on her wooden chair. I wondered if she ever even left that spot. I approached her as per my usual round.

“What is it, you need another bed? It was far too much trouble last time, so I'll have to decline. You should be lucky I made an exception for you in the first place. What kind of adventurer requests a custom-made bed? You are one weird customer.”

I assured her I had a different subject at hand and pulled out the Amulet of Anastasis. I thought there was a slight possibility she would recognize it now that the faceplate was removed, but alas, it was not so. If there were multiple amulets of this kind in this world, then at the very least they're not common.

“Hey, how did that kobold fortress go? You came back awfully fast. Did you give up? It's not shame to do so, everybody needs to know when to quit,” she said.

“Oh no, I fully cleared it. I got a bunch of loot, at least 100 copper coins.”

One could see a soul of greed shining through her eyes. Money seemed to be the one thing she cared about.

“You should have said so earlier! It'd be a shame for it to go to waste, so how about you buy something? I have a fine selection of goods and armor.”

I looked over the shelves. The armor was lower quality than my Black Paladin amor, and no weapon exceeded the quality of my new halberd. Everything else I needed I already bought previously.

“Sorry, there's nothing here I want.”

The woman rubbed her chin in thought.

“Then why not celebrate your accomplishment? We could throw a party for everyone in town. It's been a long time since we had such a successful adventurer around, so it is a notable occasion.”

“I really don't think-”

“Don't be so modest, Eren! Just leave it up to me!”

Being completely overwhelmed, I decided to leave the subject alone. And with business taken care of, I was ready to leave. As I tried to do so, however, I could feel rattling coming from by bag. I almost forgot about Calvar.

“Ferra, just a random question. What do you think of the undead?”

She was taken aback by the question.

“Undead? I hear they're terrible beings that want to extinguish all life, but I never came across any myself. Probably a good thing, too.”

“Did you know that some of them are friendly? Some can talk and don't behave that differently from you or me.”

She apparently found the fact very curious.

“Really? That's the first I heard of that. Friendly, talking undead? It sounds utterly bizarre.”

“Would you like to talk to one?”

“...excuse me?”

“Would you like to talk to a friendly undead? I know of one. Don't worry, the only dangerous part about him is his sharp tongue.”

Ferra wistfully turned her head.

“Well, maybe, if it's truly harmless. But where would you get an undead like that?”

I smiled and reached into my bag. I pulled out the skull and placed it on the table.

“Ferra, I'd like to introduce you to Calvar, the friendly skeleton.”

Ferra and Calvar stared at each for several seconds. If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was embarrassed.

“Hey? How is it going?” he asked.

The woman gasped in surprise.

“A talking skull! My words, I've never seen anything like it.”

Ferra kept eyeballing Calvar with mad curiosity. He was clearly uncomfortable with the visual probing. I made use of the opportunity to leave.

“Hey Eren! Don't leave me here alone, you said you'd be my wing ma-”

I basked in the fresh outside air. With Calvar now on his own grounds, I could focus on my next task at hand.

However, I saw a shadow rustling along the bushes on the outskirts of town. This was something I was only be able to notice due to my enhanced dexterity. It appears I was being followed.

I instinctively took out my weapon and got ready for a fight.