Tylie and Fern led the way towards the wagons that were being guarded by only a few Skeletons now that the Guards being led by Jameson had blocked the road. As soon as they were close enough Tylie activated some sort of spell that covered the closest Skeleton in shadows. This immediately attracted the attention of another one of the Skeletons that had been left behind.

However, it failed to notice Fern and Tylie as they crept back towards the rest of our group. Upon approaching the Skeleton that seemed to have been trapped in Tylie’s spell it examined the prison for a few seconds before looking around once more. This time it spotted the rest of us lurking in the forest and started moving towards us.

I didn’t know why the Skeleton didn’t alert the others who were still watching fight going on towards the front of the train of wagons, but I certainly wasn’t going to complain. Honestly, things were going so well that it was actually pretty shocking. Jameson had mentioned that the average Undead had very limited intelligence, which only worsened if they were being controlled at a distance by something else.

The Skeleton hesitated slightly as Franky, and I stood up. Franky was the Guard who had been ordered to join us. Franky’s go-to weapons in this case were a pair of nasty looking axes but like many of the other Guards he also had a Light Magic Core in one of his Soul Core Slots. Before the Skeleton came to the conclusion that it should’ve alerted the others both Franky and I landed a synchronized hit on the Skeleton which destroyed it completely. Franky was quite a bit stronger than I was, but we had decided that both of us would attack it to make sure that we’d finished it off.

While we looted the Skeleton that we’d just killed the other three all attacked the Skeleton that Tylie had trapped in some sort of shadow magic with ranged attacks. This time three of the other Skeletons that had been left behind to guard the wagons noticed what was going on and turned towards us.

Some of the prisoners started begging us for help as we engaged the Skeletons. They were all in a pretty bad state and I honestly couldn’t tell if any of them were Players or not. However, there wasn’t a lot that we could do about them right now because we had to deal with the Skeletons first. There was still a chance that some of them were trying to switch sides to the Undead and we couldn’t rule out someone being an idiot and making a lot of noise either.

Franky was doing a really good job of holding off two of the Skeletons which allowed me to lock the second one down while the others used ranged attacks to pick them off one at a time. It was nice to see Fern using the wand that I had made for her. It didn’t deal that much damage, but it did allow her to deal damage while she got closer before bringing one of the Skeletons that Franky was fighting down with her melee attacks.

This allowed us to finish off the other two Skeletons with relative ease. Things almost went badly when the Skeleton that I was fighting activated some sort of Skill which broke through my Ward and dealt a decent amount of damage to me. Thankfully, Tylie was paying attention and one of her chakrams took its head off a few seconds later.

Another couple of the Skeletons had noticed what was going on and started heading towards us but we decided that Franky would be able to hold them off while we started releasing the prisoners. This was a little risky since we didn’t know anything about them. But we needed to get them out of here before the Skeletons that were fighting Jameson and the others noticed what was going on and turned on us.

The wagons that the prisoners were kept in had a cage made of bone the prevented them from escaping but Tylie was able to cut through that with some sort of magical tool that Jameson had given her. Once we had created a large enough opening that people could get through, we started helping the prisoners out. Their hands were still bound in some sort of bone casing behind their backs which caused a lot of them to complain but we didn’t have time to deal with that right now.

I ignored the angry mutterings of another of the prisoners as I helped him through the opening that we had made when he suddenly shoved me backwards into the wagon before attempting to make a break for it in the direction of the main fight. Tylie reacted immediately by throwing one of her chakrams at his legs. The man cursed loudly as the chakram severed his leg at the ankle but he somehow managed to keep moving which told me that he was a Player.

“He’s an Outsider!” I shouted to the others. “Just kill him. We can capture him when he respawns!”

Katy was already moving, and multiple arrows sprouted from the back of his head and neck killing him. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. Some of the Skeletons that had been attempting to take part in the main fight finally noticed what was going on. I quickly clambered out of the wagon and moved to engage the Skeletons that had turned to attack us. Judging by what happened next Fern took my place in the wagon helping the prisoners to escape because she was the only one that didn’t help Franky and I.

About a minute into the fight, I came to the conclusion that one or more of us weren’t going to survive this fight as more Skeletons turned to attack us. So, I started fighting my way over to Franky who was currently attempting to hold off four Skeletons all by himself.

“Franky, you need to get out of here man,” I said as I blocked the attack of one of the three Skeletons that I was fighting with my naginata then grunted in pain as one of the other Skeletons managed to stab me in the side.

“What are you talking about?” he shot back. “If I do that, you’ll die in less than a minute.”

“Yes, but I’ll come back,” I growled at him as I activated my Repulse Skill sending several Skeletons stumbling backwards. “Now get going.”

Franky hesitated for a few more seconds before nodding in agreement and activating some sort of Skill that allowed him to fire some sort of shockwave from his axes which sent the Skeletons that he was fighting tumbling backwards. Since they had already seen a similar technique before it was less effective than my Repulse had been, but it was enough for Franky to turn around and run back towards the others. As he turned around, I saw the frustrated look on his face and resolved to make sure he knew that he had done the right thing the next time I saw him.

Lightning started crackling around my body as I cast my Lightning Armor spell. I might not be able to survive this fight but there was no way that I was going to let the Skeletons bring me down easily. Even though I was focusing on defense I was probably not going to survive more than a couple of minutes.

In fact, I nearly died a few seconds after Franky left when one of the Skeletons activated a Skill but before the other Skeletons could follow up the attack which I barely managed to dodge Fern crashed into them. As they tumbled to the ground once again several arrows struck the Skeletons that remained standing causing a wide grin to appear in my face as I realized that my friends had come to the same conclusion as I had.

Hopefully, Franky was explaining what we were doing to Tylie if she hadn’t figured it out already, but I didn’t have time to look back and see what she was doing. Especially since we had attracted even more attention from the Skeletons that had been attacking Jameson and the Guards.

I took a moment to pull a healing potion out of my Inventory and drained it before stepping back into the fight. However, that slight boost to my HP barely lasted ten seconds due to the sheer number of Skeletons attacking me. Fern was killed within twenty seconds of her joining the fight which meant that I was getting pushed back even more.

By this point Jameson and the Guards finally noticed that we were under attack. Jameson and his elites were starting to fight their way over to us now that they had killed the Skeletal Knights, but I knew that they weren’t going to arrive before the Skeletons killed me and probably Katy who was still firing arrows into the crowd of Skeletons. Just as I thought that some of the Skeletons slipped past me and charged towards Katy making me curse out loud.

As one Skeleton plunged a spear into my side, and another raised a sword to swing it at my head the last thing that went through my mind was that I hoped that Tylie and Franky had managed to get the rest of the prisoners in the wagon away. Then the Skeleton brought its sword down on my head causing everything to turn black before a familiar blue screen appeared in front of me telling me that I had dead and had 24 hours before I could Log In to the game again.

“Well, that sucked,” I sighed as I exited the game and found myself in my Personal Space. Katy hadn’t been killed yet so I sat down on the couch to wait for her since I was willing to bet that she wouldn’t survive either. Sure enough, less than a minute later she appeared in the middle of the room.

“Is that what it’s like to die?’ she asked me once she’d spotted me sitting on the couch. “It sucks.”

“It really does, doesn’t it?” I chuckled. “By the way, there’s something that I’ve been meaning to ask. When you get hurt in the game do you feel it?”

“Yes,” she replied with a wince. “We feel the same level of pain as you do. However, since AIs like me don’t usually feel pain it’s actually worse for us in many ways.”

“Well, then I’m sorry that I got you into that situation,” I replied with a sigh. “That really didn’t go very well.”

“It went about as well as it could,” she pointed out. “It was a pretty risky operation and that idiot who tried to run made it worse. Still, I think we saved about fifteen people from whatever the Skeletons were planning to do with them.”

“I suppose,” I admitted. “So, since we have a bit of time now how about you show me the flats that you’ve found?”

“I think that would be a good idea,” Katy agreed happily. “Just give me a second to check to see if there are any new properties to look at.”

“Sure,” I nodded. “We’ve got plenty of time.”

I sat down on the couch next to her while she looked for any other apartments that I might be interested in. I still didn’t really know how to react to how much I was getting paid by Gransoft Entertainment and that was without even considering the fact that they were also going to give me a state-of-the-art VR Rig. Honestly, my current apartment wasn’t even that bad. There were plenty of people who lived in worse places than this, but it was still small and cold in the winter which was rapidly approaching. It would also be good for me to get out of here. I had lived in this apartment for several years now and I had basically been wallowing in my depression the entire time. Getting out of here would hopefully help me move on from my past a bit.

“Alright, I’ve prepared a holographic presentation for you,” Katy said a few seconds later. “I actually took the liberty of adding a couple of small houses that you can afford to rent as well in case you’re interested.”

“Okay, I don’t think that I’m going to be particularly interested in those, but I suppose that there’s no harm in taking a look,” I replied.

“Awesome,” Katy nodded as my personal space shifted and changed into an unfamiliar room. It was a nice enough looking living room with an open kitchen. The kitchen was quite well equipped but there was something about the room that I didn’t quite like. It was incredibly an incredibly dark room with no windows, and it just reminded me of my current apartment which only had a couple of windows in my room and the bathroom. Katy quickly showed me the rest of the rooms but by the time we had finished I still had the same opinion.

“Katy, I don’t think this is the one,” I told my AI who nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, I thought that might be the case,” she told me. “I didn’t realize that apartment was basically just a slightly nicer version of this one when I saw it. They must’ve adjusted the photos.”

“That’s okay let’s just move on,” I said, and Katy nodded in agreement as the room shifted once again. “Oh, this is much nicer.”

It was pretty obvious that this apartment was a lot more expensive than the previous one, but it was also much nicer. The living room wasn’t that large but one of the walls was nearly all window and from the view outside the apartment was quite high up. It wasn’t a penthouse apartment, but it was still a very nice place. It also had a much better kitchen than either my current apartment or the previous one which I liked a lot.

“So, I’m guessing that the previous place was on the lowest end of what I can afford, and this place is the most expensive?” I asked once we’d finished looking around.

“Something like that,” Katy agreed. “Do you like it?”

“This is much better,” I agreed. “Do I want to know how much it will cost me to rent it?”

“It’s not for rent,” Katy replied. “And you probably don’t want to know how much it costs for now.”

“If you say so,” I sighed as the room shifted once again. This new place was somewhere in between the two previous ones and was even smaller than both of them. It was considerably nicer than the first one but didn’t have as nice of a kitchen as the previous one. The view also wasn’t as good but that wasn’t really that important to me compared to other things.

Once we’d finished looking around, we moved onto the next place which was quite different compared to anything else that we’ looked at so far. Mostly because it was an actual house instead of just being an apartment. It was quite a nice place with 2 bedrooms and a smallish yard with a well-kept garden.

I actually quite liked the pace but, in the end, I decided that the garden was just something else that I wouldn’t have time to take care of if I was going to be spending most of my time playing Soul Core Online. There was always the option of hiring someone to do it for me, but I really just didn’t see the point.

After a while we took a break so that I could eat something and go to the toilet we continued our holographic tour of several more apartments and houses. In the end there were really only three that stood out to me. The second, third and eighth ones that Katy showed me. In all honesty I was most interested in the eighth one. It was one of the smallest apartments that we had looked at, but it had a great kitchen and layout as well as an excellent view out the windows which was almost as good as the view from the second one that she’d shown me.

“I agree,” Katy nodded. “That one suits us best. It’s within our budget too.”

“Oh good,” I sighed. “I was a little worried about that. It’s a really nice place.”

“I mean, it costs almost all of our signing bonus, but we can afford it,” Katy confirmed. “So, you’ll have to keep up your current diet until you get your first paycheck.”

“That’s fine,” I decided. “Contact the Real Estate Agent and let them know that we’re interested please.”

“Sure, I can do that,” Katy nodded. “What do you want to do now?”

“How about we watch a movie?” I asked. “Is there one that you want to watch?”

“Yes,’ Katy replied immediately making me chuckle in amusement. “There’s actually one that I’ve been waiting to watch with you. Apparently, it’s your favorite movie.”

“Oh?” I asked. “If it’s the one that I’m thinking of then it’s been a while since I’ve watched it. Sounds like a good idea to me.”

“Oh, wait I just got a response from the Real Estate Agent,” Katy said. Apparently that apartment has been on the market for a while, so the owner really wants someone to rent it as soon as possible.”

I was going to say that seemed really quick,” I replied. “Did they have an automatic response or something?”

“Actually, I’m communicating with their AI right now,” Katy nodded. “Apparently the owner is willing to give us a discount on the deposit if we move in before the end of next week.”

“Sounds fine to me,” I agreed. “I’ve already let Mrs. Cook who owns the apartment know that we’re planning on moving out soon so she won’t mind the short notice too much. “How much will we save if we move in early?”

“About 500 Credits,” Katy replied absently making me blink in surprise. “Which also our weekly rent.”

500 Credits was a fairly significant amount of money for me. I would be able to afford it pretty easy for me to afford it now that I had a new job, but it was still pretty surprising to me. My current apartment only cost me 120 Credits every week plus electricity and internet so this new apartment cost more than double that every week in rent alone.

“Oh, by the way power and internet are included in the rent so it’s not as bad as it seems,” Katy said when she saw the look on my face. “We’re actually lucky that this apartment is as small as it is. If it was any bigger, then the price would increase pretty dramatically.”

“It’s fine Katy,” I chuckled. “Have you made sure that we can set up the new VR Rig?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Katy nodded. “It’s a pretty new apartment so it’s set up so that you can do things like that pretty easily.”

“That’s great Katy, let them know that we’ll move in next week,” I decided before I could change my mind. “Once you’ve done that we can watch that movie to celebrate.”