Just as he had hoped, Undead Creation was now up to level 2. And like the System said, his grade and class abilities had also been updated. So many different kinds of abilities were now options at his disposal. He would need to try out the two new ones later, to see what spells he could cast from them. For now, however, Emil put away the scroll. As planned, he would go into town to get his room, have dinner while at the inn, and then head to the cemetery.

When Emil arrived in the town, a few of the shops were still open. He considered stopping by one to see if they had anything he wanted, but decided that could wait for tomorrow morning. He went back into Dorothy’s, glancing around as he walked in. The inn was far livelier than it had been earlier that day. The main room was packed with people. All of them were eating, drinking, and chatting. All the seats in front of the bar were already taken.

“Hey there, if you need a place to sit, why not join us?” A voice asked. Emil turned to where it was coming from. It was a table occupied by several men and women, both young and old. One of the men, someone seemingly around his age, was waving at him. They did have an open chair, so Emil decided to go ahead and accept the invitation. He went to sit down, and introduced himself.

“I’m Ben,” said the man who had invited him over. “This is Johnny, Isabel, and Liz. The four of us are rookies with the Dungeon Divers Guild. We’re just here getting some advice from our seniors, before we head out next week.”

At the other side of the table were three older people, two men and one woman. They introduced themselves to Emil as Cade, Hadwin, and Mabel. Cade was a retired dungeon diver, Hadwin was one of the local clerics, and Mabel owned an alchemy shop on this street.

They were all either family friends or distant relatives to the rookies, so they were here to give them some wisdom. As they spoke, Emil very quickly noticed that those three each had varying amounts of gold and silver teeth. They asked what his story was, and he told them the same thing he had for Dorothy. And that he was just here to eat dinner, before paying for a room here at the inn.

The eight of them proceed to have a nice discussion for the next half hour or so. During that time, Emil was able to order a drink and some food for himself. And when Dorothy became available, he also paid for his room in advance for a stay of one week.

With that now settled, he tried to let himself relax so that he could enjoy the dinner and company. However, that time of fun and enjoyment was soon interrupted. A group of people barged into the inn, one of them looked around before heading straight for their table.

“Ben! It’s Sarah, she’s gone missing!” Ben’s face paled as the situation was explained. His little sister had apparently been out for most of the afternoon with a group of her friends. At some point, they had decided to go into the forest and were out there for several hours. However, when the rest of the kids just recently came back, she wasn’t with them. Nobody knew where she currently was.

A search party was currently being organized, one where as many people as possible were being recruited. Some had already gone out in the woods, while others like this group were spreading the word. It was paramount that she be found as soon as humanly possible. This late in the day during winter, a child could very easily freeze to death if left out there.

The people in the tavern quickly rallied together. Dozens of them went out, either to spread the word further or go aid in the search. During this whirl of movement and organization, Emil stepped outside.

With so many people wandering around the woods, there was a chance his little camp could be found. As such, the first thing he did was mentally communicate such instricions to Theo. He ordered it to bury all of his things along with the golems, and then to keep itself hidden from anyone that came by. Once that was done, he began to think to himself.

‘A little girl goes missing, while a child murderer is on the loose. What are the chances…’ Emil looked out. Perhaps this was the work of the silver one, or maybe it was just unrelated. However, as long as the possibility existed, he needed to find out for himself. And to that end, he decided to go down to the river.

When he neared the river bank, he could see several people already walking along it, torches in hand. When he approached one of them, he was told that if Sarah were to try returning on her own, this was the place to watch for. Apparently, in this town, there was a common practice to tell children how to find their way back if they got lost. They were supposed to find and simply follow the river until they reached the town. So they were out here, keeping watch in case she came back.

Emil was able to see perfectly fine in the dark. However, when offered a torch by one of them, he took it and moved along. Once he was out of sight, he looked at the water. If the silver one was involved, then it was likely too late for the little girl. So there was a chance her body was somewhere further downstream, and simply hadn’t been found yet.

However, he recalled what the graveyard spirits had informed him. That there were others whose bodies hadn’t been found, and were still in the river. Maybe they sunk down and became buried in the sand? Was that something the silver one did on purpose to hide the bodies, or did it happen on its own? In either case, with how freezing cold the water currently was, it was unlikely that anyone else would go in. Meaning that it would be up to him.

Emil left the torch and the rest of his stuff on the ground. After taking off his outer coat, he waded into the river. The water would have been ice-cold to a normal person. But to him, it was simply nice and cool. However, it was as he became waist-deep into the water that he felt something.

A sensation, the same kind he had felt with the graveyard ghosts. It was weak, but definitely there. As he went deeper in, it became slightly stronger. But he could feel that whatever it was, it was coming from further down the river. He swam forward, following it. After several minutes of swimming, the feeling was a lot stronger now. It seemed to be coming from almost directly under him, so he dived down.

As Emil touched the bottom, he immediately noticed something as the river bed was disturbed. Mixed in with the particles of sand, there were murky clouds of black and white, swirling together. When he reached out to them, he recognized what they were. The dark parts were clouds of death energy, while the white was a human soul. Or at least, what little there was left of it.

He could feel the residual suffering of the spirit. But that pain was all there was left of it. It had been down here for decades, the ghost’s identity was stripped away with time. Its physical body was long gone, its skeleton was reduced to dust by the flowing water. By now, the bones would be indistinguishable from the sediment.

Emil recalled an old tale from his mother, one that he was told as a child. In a bedtime story about a lost spirit, she had told him that ghosts couldn’t travel over running water. And any that tried would be unable to fly over it, and instead fall in. Perhaps there was some merit to that fairy tale.

Searching around, Emil found more spirits. They were all in a similar state, but he could feel that each one had been trapped for a different amount of time. Some had been here for generations, and at this point, were more like pure spiritual energy than an actual ghost. While others had been here for less than a decade, and through the pain, still retained some of their personality. But they were all suffering, and would be here forever unless he helped them.

However, that would have to come later. Right now, finding out what happened to the girl was his main priority. Emil tapped into the power of the more whole spirits and their memories. Had they noticed anything today? After looking through, he found his answer. One of them had felt a new soul enter the river just recently. It didn’t have much to offer for the details, but he extracted as much information from it as he could.

Emil went back up to the surface and swam to the shore. After running over to where he left his stuff, he hurriedly threw his coat back on and grabbed his things. There was no time to waste.