Just like he said he would, Darsumi left for the capital the next day. Hemdus was busy with commissions and, having no other plans until the festival, Bones joined him in the workshop.

He walked over to a remote spot, the same one he did when he first started engraving, sat on the chair and summoned an alchemy set.

Since I've made the decision to go to the frontlines, I might as well prepare for it the best I can. I'm not well versed in alchemy, but what I know should be enough for what I need.

Once he set up an alchemy table, Bones opened and searched through his inventory until he found the items he was looking for, poison glands. Bones always wanted to make use of them, he just hadn't thought of what he would use them for until now. The poison glands were taking up two inventory slots. In the first slot there were tier 1 poison glands looted from the spiders in the forest near Westbrook. And in the second slot were the tier 2 glands dropped in the second stage of the dungeon. Bones took out all the poison glands he looted from the spiders in the last few months and placed them on the table. He took a gland from each tier and made a simple test to test the potency of the poison within them.

His work sparked Hem’s interest. He waltzed over and watched Bones working over his shoulders.

"Ye doin alchemy now Boney? Makin mana potions? Dun look like it!"

Bones replied, without stopping working. "No, not mana potions. I'm testing the potency of the poison from the poison glands. Hem, higher tier items imply better quality, no?"

"Hm? Ye, higher tier poison woulda been bettah! Do ye plan to coat ye weapon wit it?"

"Poison coating on weapons? Interesting idea but no, not at this time."

Seeing as Bones didn't continue with an explanation, Hemdus excused himself and left Bones working in peace. Like Bones thought, the result of the test concluded that tier 1 poison was mild at best and wouldn't have much of an effect on anyone at bronze rank and higher. Bones discarded a whole batch of the tier 1 poison glands, leaving only tier 2. Tier 2 would have to do!

Bones used alchemy tools to dissect the poison glands and extract the venom within. It was a slow process and each gland resulted in a small dose of venom. Bones collected venom in phials and he had a stack of hundreds of glands to go through. It took the rest of the day to go through all of them and in the end, he only had a dozen vials full of spider venom.

"Ima dun for da day. How ye doin?" Hem approached and asked, seeing phials filled to the brim with yellow liquid on the table in front of Bones.

"I'm done with the first step. Next is to transform the liquid into powder…luckily, I have just the right planting agent for it!"

Hemdus made some incoherent sound, then said: "Am sure ye know wut ye doin, later…", and left. Bones chuckled and proceeded working throughout the night and very well into the next day. Occasionally, Hem would stop by and ask questions. Bones didn't mind and answered his questions to the best of his capability but it was clear that Hem didn't have any interest in alchemy and would mostly zone out when Bones was explaining what he was doing.

A day later, Darsumi returned around midday and found Bones busy in the workshop using a mortar and pestle to grind dried orchid flowers into a powder. He approached quietly so as not to disturb him and looked at the worktable full of small pouches. He took a peek inside one and sniffed, then grimaced. "What a strong scent! What are you doing there?"

Bones was startled away from his work, almost dropping the mortar. He was so into working, he didn't notice Dar approaching. "My god Dar, my heart almost gave up. When did you get back?"

Darsumiumi snorted and after exchanging greetings, said he just came back. He took out a spatial ring Bones gave him before he left, and handed it back. "Check it, it's all there!"

Bones excitedly snatched the ring and stood up. Darsumi moved to the side, making room and Bones summoned the skeleton stored within the ring. Bones marveled at the skeleton of the orc, a bit over two meters high.

"You're playing with fire, Bones! Some might misinterpret having an orc for a golem, but better an orc than a human or worse - a dwarf!" Darsumi stated and added. "No wonder it cost as much as it did!"

Bones nodded and said it was exactly what he was looking for! He identified the skeleton and saw it was from a level 48 orc. This will prove to be a challenge to engrave but…Bones glanced at his hands and formed a fist. A challenge I'll gladly tackle!

"You seem satisfied! I'm glad everything worked out for you. Now…" Darsumi glanced at the pouches on the table and Bones followed his gaze.

"Right, take a seat. I could use your input!" Bones said and stored the skeleton into his Bone Collector inventory. The golem can wait a few more hours. "By the way, what about my new ID?"

Darsumi sat down and said he made contact with, well…his contact and made arrangements for a new ID. "I'll have all the information by tomorrow and I'll get back to you on price and everything else!"

Bones thanked the dwarf and turned to his alchemy set in front of him. "I'm working on something to give me an edge on the frontlines."

"I noticed the powder has a rather strong distinct smell of a poison.” Darsumi said and continued. “It seems surprisingly potent, but I don't think it'll work well though! Bronze ranker's constitution is already high enough to significantly resist the effect of a poison. Where did you get the poison from?"

"You're right, it is poison. I extracted the venom from the poisonous glands dropped by the spiders in the dungeon." Bones replied and watched Darsumi look on in surprise as the poison seemed more potent than what it should have been.

Bones guessed what made Dar surprised and explained. "I used a Blue Orchid Flower, mostly used in mana potion making as a mixture agent to absorb the venom, dried it and then grinding it to a powder, as you can see."

"And you are telling me you're not an alchemist? Because I know a few alchemists and know they use various methods to increase the effectiveness of their concoctions and…it seems to me you at least have the basics down!"

Bones chuckled at that. "I used to make simple concoctions and serums back in my time, but nothing on the level I'd be able to call myself an alchemist."

Darsumi raised an eyebrow. "Back in my time, you say?"

Bones sighed, recognizing he made a blunder. He put the alchemy tools down and stood up, wiping his hands in a piece of cloth. "How about we take a break and move to the kitchen?"

Darsumi nodded and on the way out of the workshop, Bones motioned for Hemdus to join them on the break, to which he happily agreed/obliged.

"Since the time of the festival is closing in, I might as well explain a few things." Both dwarves stayed silent and focused their attention to Bones.

"You two have been more than accommodating with having an undead breathing down your necks, so to speak. Why didn't you ask anything? I'm sure this isn't a normal situation even to the two of you!"

Hemdus chuckled and said: "Yer business is yer own Boney. We figured if ye wanted to say sumthing, ye already would."

"We had doubts when we first met and then some more after you revealed yourself to us. Don't take this the wrong way Bones, but you aren't a real threat to us. So we waited to see how things would play out between us and I think I can speak for the both of us that we're glad things worked out the way they did! "Darsumi pitched in.

"Fair enough." Bones said and paused, gathering his thoughts. "I don't know what you thought of me but my past isn't as important. What I want to share is the fact that I was born and lived in a time before the system." Bones said and waited to see if the dwarves would react, but they didn’t so he continued. "I was a mage, obviously, average in skill. The only special thing about me was my affinity to Soul Magic, which at that time was almost unheard of. I wasn't particularly strong compared to other mages and I was nearing my end when…through a series of events, let's call them that, my soul became embodied to a recently raised skeleton."

"Wait! Wait wait wait…" Darsumi interjected. "That day with the necromancer and an undead army…"

Bones nodded and confirmed that that was the night. "When I came to, I was in the body of a skeleton, looking at the transparent blue screen in front of me. Now that I think back, I must admit that I was pretty distraught and I could have better handled my actions back then."

There was brief silence before he added: "I think that's pretty much it. I met a few adventurers on the way to Westbrook, met Silva there and from there on, I mostly went with the flow."

"Huh, 'nd I called ye a lad when yer' as old as…well, very old! I hav thought ye were one of em enlightened ones or experimenting type and ye did dat to yer self!"

"You're not far off Hem, but no. I am the result of a system…Honestly I was expecting more of a reaction from the two of you. That’s a pretty big bomb I just dropped on you two! Wait, what do you mean by the enlightened ones?”

Hemdus shrugged and said that while it was a first for him, it wasn’t the worst thing he heard. Darsumi was deep in thought but agreed with Hem. “You look a bit deflated.” Darsumi said, chuckling. “The enlightened is a term used to describe sentient monsters. Those that ascended above their primal urges. It’s actually reassuring to know that you’re like this because of system shenanigans. Also explains why you have so many weird questions! Your story is somewhat lacking though…”

*gasps* “Oh? MY story is lacking, is that so? Then what about you two? Why don’t you tell me what is up with you two!”

The two dwarves shared a look and Hemdus innocently asked. “Wuteverr do ye mean Boney?”

“Since I shared, it’s only right for you to share as well, no? It didn’t strike me as odd at first, but now, after all this time, I can’t help but wonder why there are so many dwarves in Stonefall of all places?!”

Hem was about to reply but Bones interjected. “And don’t tell me the same story you told me back then! I can tell you are more than just a talented smith. There’s no point in you, all of you, being here and stalling your progress rather than being in the capital or somewhere else for that matter.”

Hemdus looked down, gritting his teeth. “Is not like I wanna be ‘ere…”

“We’re exiled Bones” Darsumi interrupted. Both Hem and Bones looked at him in surprise. “Don’t look at me like that. Just as you said, there’s no way we would be here if we weren’t forced to be here.”

*sigh* “We’re from the Ebasal Kingdom to the south and we-”

“GLORIOUS PLACE BONEY, JUST GLORIOUS!” Hem shouted. *cough cough* “High mountains as far as yer eyes coulda see! Rich soil ‘nd advanced cities! Ooohh da smell of ore Boney…takes me back…” Hem whispered the last part, feeling nostalgic.

“Uh, wow okay. What happened?” Bones asked.

“Back home, Hemdus was a renowned young smith coming from a long line of smiths and I was, well, his cousin and a smuggler. As glorious as our Kingdom was, clans often waged wars against each other for the resources. See, our greatest weakness is that the dwarf always wants more and our clan waged war with other clans over a mountain rich in ore and precious stones." Darsumi took a swig of his drink, coughed and continued.

"Hem was one of the smiths conscripted with making armor and weapons for the clan. Me and Hem however, thought better than to just make equipment for our clan.."

"Don't tell me…" Bones said incredulously.

"That's right. We were selling to other clans as well as our own. Hem made the equipment and I smuggled it. Our clan eventually won and certain things came to light. Our families have been labeled as traitors and were expelled from the kingdom. Of course, they didn't just exile us. They've black-listed us! We won't prosper ever again no matter where we go! They wouldn't let us!"

"Damn Dar! I didn't expect that." Bones said and glanced at Hem who kept staring down at the table, lost in thoughts. "But you have a shop now?"

Darsumi shook his head. "When we first came here, we opened up multiple shops in the capital. Once our reputation spread, we were quickly shut down. No doubt the work of our people. A small shop like this one and the one in Westbrook won't raise any red flags!"

This is just great Bones. Nice company you keep. The terrorists, traitors and I guess I fall under a murderer…

"I think we're done with the break. How about you show us what you're making." Darsumi said and started getting up.

Bones nodded and turned to Hem. "Hem? Common, no use dwelling on the past."

*sniff* "Ye, ye…I be comin wit ye in a second."