As I stare into the two bottomless eye sockets my pains are washed away as if they were actually never there. My head felt light as my migraine simply banishes and the sound in my immediate surroundings and those of the forest outside the building made themselves present again.

It took me only a moment to understand what had just happened as the living corpse retrieved its hand from my shaky head.

It healed me.

Not with miraculous saliva as these creatures do but with a genuine healing spell. My awe at this fact short-lived as I hear the corpse speak with the faint voice of an old man.

"I inquire again... Your name is...?" It said with a short pause between phrases. Its voice rough, but clear enough to understand although with an eerie interference as if dampened by a thick piece of cloth. The words feel uncomfortably familiar but I failed to understand their meaning.

"I- I don't understand. W-What did you say?" I stutter in response.

It waited for me to continue for a moment but I didn't speak further.

"I cannot recognize your language... No wonder... It has been a long time." It stood up and whispered to itself as it turned around. "I almost forgot... living organisms... need their bodies intact to live... I cannot let him die, yet." He walks back to the desk on the opposite side of the dusty room as I finish deciphering what it said.

Now alone with my thoughts, I slowly start to understand the situation. It was talking in the ancient language, the same one in which many original chants of spells were written in. I have a certain understanding of it, even if I don't speak it fluently. It is a dead tongue, after all.

But, is that thing a Lich? An undead? It should be true but also it should be almost impossible. The ancient undead armies were all destroyed and eradicated long ago. The Liches, the immortal masters of death magic were all exterminated. Necromancy had been suppressed since then.

So many stories and legends about them.

Why is one of them here? What does it want from me?

According to what I have read, it isn't unheard of to see the undead wander around from time to time. They sometimes appear spontaneously due to a variety of reasons but all of that reported undead aren't different from beasts, they do not show any sign of sentience. Being capable of speech, this monster seems pretty sentient to me. That can only mean one thing, it was a human at some point in the past. But here isn't the outside world, did one of them escape by entering the forest?

My internal musings are interrupted by a faint light and a hitting sound coming from the desk the Lich went back to. When the light came alive the Lich flinched and dropped something over the desk.

Squinting my eyes, I make out my backpack over the desk, and at the side, the source of light lies. It is the glowing white rock that those strange monsters graciously gifted me weeks before. The Lich lets out a croaking and low laugh that discomforts me.

"It is just one of those damned(?) rocks..." It says a word I don't recognize, probably a curse. "I have not seen one... in millennia..."

It seems to knows what the rock is and for a monster like that to know then it must be pretty valuable. I restrain my desire to ask right away what it knows about the rock and focus on listening to its muttering. It takes a few things from the desk, I caught a glance of my clock and the black blade I use as a knife. after a while, it put everything inside the backpack and walked to a different desk with two drawers. It slides one open and puts the backpack inside.

"This thing will attract problems... these always do... I have to get rid of it... but now is not the time..." After muttering that the Lich closes the drawer but a moment later turns its head in my direction.

"Where did you find it?... What were you doing... wandering this place with some beasts?" Right! I was with the Mingan when this guy attacked. What happened to them? Did... they die? I shuddered at the thought.

The Lich stopped to study me for a moment.

"You don't seem more than a savage child... Has a human tribe settled in this old forest?... Impossible... Here should be relatively deep into the Wilderness." He walks a few paces closer to me.

"Your mana regeneration is pitiful... but it will do..." It continues talking and I make my best to appear confused, as if not understanding its words. As long as it thinks I can't understand it maybe it will slip something important. "Presumably... you did not receive any formal training on handling mana... but it will suffice..." Surprisingly, being told how little mana I have by a corpse actually hurt more than when said by my classmates but I kept the confused and fearful expression.

"Light-colored eyes... they would hint to a high birth... but baseless beliefs... do not tend to last long... or does the irrational lasts the longest...?" The philosophical Lich reaches for its head as if patting its inexistent chin. The Lich is jawless, so the movement seems so oddly creepy that I do not need to feign my discomfort at watching it

Also, nobles by eye color? I know that was not a thing back in Town and neither it is in the Ever Empire. Maybe in the two empires in the continent south of here, I don't know much of them.

The Lich turns around and walks to the door opposite me, leaving without saying any other word.

Finally alone, I take my time to process its one-sided conversation.

It mentioned the glowing rock and problems with it. What type of problems was it talking about and what exactly is the rock? If a Lich is wary about it then probably it's not something safe. Thinking it better, an ancient being is surely knowledgeable, it would be good if I could manage to teach me things or spells, not the evil ones but the healing spell it used on me can surely come in handy. If I remember correctly I don't have an affinity for healing magic, yet healing spells aren't restricted to that affinity either. It depends. Having more spells would be good even if only for reference.

It seems I am trapped here for the time being, at least until I figure out a plan to escape. Even if I escape how do I find my way back to the Mingan? I feel my chest tightening, I hope they are well. If they aren't then I can only try my hardest to leave the forest.

Still, better if I don't think about it for now, my own survival is all that matters. I need to figure out why the Lich is keeping me alive. Would it want to eat me? No, without a jaw that is physically impossible, although I am not an expert on the undead.

Oh no, maybe it wants to turn me into a zombie or a skeleton. Likely if it were to teach me something it would turn me on an undead first. I don't want that, not at all.

How to escape this place? I am tied to some type of handcuffs that lock both my hands behind my back and directly to the wall as well. I could wait until it goes to sleep and- wait, does the undead even sleep?

I can feel despair starting to build up within me. The Lich probably is always awake so I don't have a perfect time to attempt an escape, my spells ar- My spells! With them, my options are way more numerous.

The whole building, or at least this room, seems to be made of wood, old good flammable wood. If things come to the worst scenario I can burn this place and try to make a run for it, though If I would survive that is questionable... I can jump through the window, this seems to be the first floor, and only a piece of glass separates the room from the exterior. Also, I don't need to blow up my hands and back to fight back the Lich, I forgot it but I don't need to use my hands to launch projectile spells anymore. I am not completely helpless and it seems I have some time to think, I need to come up with something good, a good plan, and the earlier I do, the better.

Maybe the Lich will leave me alone for a few minutes or maybe for hours. Maybe I can find something useful in the room? If I use Ghost Hand I can eventually get my hands on everything not attached to the walls and roof. But, what if the Lich detects my usage of magic? Something like that surely is way within its capabilities as I can do it while in attunement.

It said that I may have almost no training, if it assumes I can't launch spells it would be for the best. Let the ancient corpse sub-estimate me. I feel like I shouldn't drop the surprise card this early in the game, it can give me a great advantage in my escape and I better get all advantages I can gather to succeed.

Without time pressing me down my thoughts become clearer. The magic that the Lich used to defeat me must have been sound-based, I can imagine that a very strong noise can damage your ears, like being shouted at zero distance. I need a counter-defense for that, if I can dampen the effect then next time things will not go the same way. I will need to bet that it will not detect my spiritual energy and even if it does, the use of external and internal mana is so different that it may not suspect my spells, which may be the only thing I have that can be a real threat to it. I send my spiritual energy to my ears, to try different ideas while thinking of a plan.

...

Time flows, minutes, then hours, the light coming from the window moved, then diminished until it flickered in defiance and finally disappeared. In the cover of the dark, I used my time the best I could. Training, thinking, planning, plotting, conspiring, and other synonyms. Also, I managed to isolate all sounds from my ears, blocking them out with spiritual energy.

Then, the doorknob turned.

The Lich stepped inside the room and walked towards me without even closing the door, so much to ask for some manners.

"Do not move..." It whispered. "It will not hurt." And without having time to think about those words it moved so fast that it seemed to appear right in front of me in an instant. Left bony hand holding my head, the bony fingers of the right touching my chest.

My brain just registering the disgusting smell of the corpse when it pushed its fingers against my chest. A scream slipped from my lungs as I struggle to move under the crushing pain.

Its hand kept carving forward into my flesh and I instinctively tried to insta-cast spells, Fireball, Earth Lance, Summon Spirit, Gale. Once and again but nothing worked, the spell matrix failing as soon as I formed it, the mana dissipating each time. Even when my body went limp and I could feel my mana dwindling I kept trying to blast the bastard to pieces despite the pain increasing by the second.

And after an undetermined amount of time passed, it stopped all at once. The hand was retrieved and I was barely awake, totally exhausted but still conscious out of pure spite at passing out too much lately. A point to my stubbornness, for sure.

The moment the hand released my head I fell forward, almost hitting the floor, but was stopped by the hold of the handcuffs on the wall at my back.

I can feel my mana pool is almost empty. The Lich must have drained it and used it to cast something. After a minute my strength starts coming back and I manage to sit with my back to the wall again. I ponder over this and my options while straining my ears to listen to the Lich muttering to itself, even while still dizzy.

"A few more times of this and it will be enough... and then the enchantment... has to be deceived for it to work."

A few more times? Is it a ritual done in parts? It can also be to make a spell or an enchantment like it says but... Why my mana and why not its own? Whatever the reason, I can't let this happen again, I am not sure I will even survive next time. The Lich is using my own mana to cast the spell, is it because it is weakened or something? If it's weak I have to act before it is strong enough to do whatever it is planning.

I gaze at my chest and notice no injuries there, no blood. Just five black dots where it probably put its fingers. I hope it's not rotten skin.

Still thinking and sweating profusely I see the Lich leave the room again.

Next time I will need to attack, it moves too fast so I can't hesitate but if it is really weakened then it may be the only chance I get. I close my eyes and quickly reach attunement, drawing mana onto me and upping my natural regeneration. While counting the seconds that pass I bind my time, preparing my meager magic for a fight against an opponent whose capabilities I am not aware of but that surely outmatches beyond belief.

...

I open my eyes while still in attunement. A few hours have passed, the light came again from the window a couple of hours ago. The Lich came into the room roughly an hour ago but it wasn't a repeat of last time, it just walked up to the desk and started writing something in silence since then. My mana has been full for a long time by now but I can feel that the end of my short imprisonment is nigh.

Putting the barrage of emotions that aren't mine at the back of my mind I try to finally decide on one of the two best plans I could come up with in my limited time. The first is to simply burst the wall behind me, jump through the window and make a run for it. The speed at which the Lich has shown being capable of moving is the only thing that holds me back in that plan. The second plan is to wait for it to get close and then burn it alive(?) with everything I have.

Of course, my chances of survival are a little higher with plan A but on the other side... If I defeat the Lich then I can not only get my things back but also rob anything it has.

The pull of the loot is greater than what I had imagined.

However, my life is more important so it takes priority in both scenarios. So, as soon as it leaves the room for a few minutes again I will bet everything at plan A, while quietly looting this room, of course. Also, I have to go to the bathroom and I doubt the living corpse will graciously untie me so I can satisfice my silly biological necessities.

But, even as I resolve myself to follow the plan I feel the emotions at the back of my mind getting stronger and stronger. It seems that there will be a need for a change of plans... My summon Luxarch Curite is coming.

Less than a minute later it started.

There are no chairs in the room. The Lich stands in front of the desk, its back to the wall but its attention focused on a yellowed paper where it is writing something with what I guess is a piece of carbon.

Suddenly, the wall at its right side exploded and something charged at it, both foes crashing on the opposite wall an instant later. Two shadows more sneaked in right after that as the leader of the Mingan started to claw and slash at the felled foe it charged blindly. The Lich's cloak is in tatters now, strips of dead flesh flying everywhere but it recovers its footing and punches the beast away, sending it flying a few meters as the other two predators enter the fight.

A loud, wordless cry echoes around the room, the Lich enraged, its voice doesn't seem dampened anymore.

"DAMNED! MINDLESS! BEASTS!!!" It cursed. "How did this happen?..."

While the Lich starts to fend off the creatures' attacks I strengthen my legs with spiritual energy and jump back against the wall. Pain on my back and arms make itself selfishly present as I hear the wooden planks on the wall snap. Still tied to the metal handcuffs I stand up and separate the handcuffs from the wood that is still encrusted on the wall. Before I could run at the desk to get my backpack Curite shows up at my side from nowhere, probably after slipping around the fight raging in front of me.

Without prompting she starts to bite to pieces the metal handcuffs, inevitably slightly injuring me in the process. I watch the fight between the Lich and even more Mingan that joined the brawl. Too overwhelmed by numbers, the Lich's left arm is cut off from its body and sails to the floor.

Shaking in rage, it screams again, raises its right hand, and snaps its fingers.

Everyone in the room flinches away from the thunderous noise. The building's windows burst into a thousand pieces and all the dust in the room is raised in a fast cloud that rushes to us.

Squinting my eyes at the dust I realize that this time I was only slightly stunned from this particular spell as I had prepared the dampening field of spiritual energy on my ears since the beginning. Even so, I failed to account for the sound that still reached my ears while traveling through my mouth, nose, and eyes, but that is an improvement to work on another occasion.

Right after feeling the vibration of the sound shaking my bones, a sense of terror assaults me but is quickly washed away by several of the formless pressures exerted by the Mingan themselves. A skill I have noticed most of the monsters in the Great Wild possess to varying degrees of usefulness, but one I have failed to replicate since the first time I noticed it wasn't my imagination.

"You are out of luck beasts... I do not need to save mana anymore..." Whispers the Lich quickly, capitalizing a small lull in the fighting to point at its severed arm, which twitched and then flew back to its owner. Black tendrils of something tie it back into place and without warning, the Lich's gray bones suddenly turn pitch black in color.

The battle resumes in earnest as Curite continues to attempt to free me without severing my hands. A cacophony of sounds similar to metal meeting metal sounds as the black bones of the undead clash with the claws and fangs of the creatures and I feel the whole building tremble with each one.

Several attacks are exchanged in the span of one second and I find myself in awe at the Lich's resilience and speed. The Lich, like an immovable mountain in the middle of a storm, deflects, blocks, and avoids a barrage of attacks that come from every angle at every moment with its bare hands. Without moving its feet, it tries to grab one of the Mingan after avoiding that same one's slash of its paw, its hand coming millimeters away from reaching it when the grabs turn itself on an elbow directed to its back and then ducking before the charge of another one.

Although overwhelming them in battle the Lich seems unconcerned at being unable to follow up in any of its attacks and its blurring extremities continue to do battle.

Judging by this it seems that indeed, the undead doesn't tire themselves out. If the battle continues like this, won't the Lich persevere at the end?

Though still not freed from the handcuffs I walked close to the drawer where my things are but at that moment the Lich finally struck true, a Mingan was sent flying out of the building with a nasty injury on its side. Skeletal right hand dripping with blood, the Lich takes advantage of the short pause again, making a reaching motion with its hand. A staff appearing from nowhere on its raised hand.

The Lich let loose a haunting laugh that makes me shiver, its voice seemingly coming from everywhere. "Enough playing around... Your corpses will serve me well!" It struck the floor with the back of the staff while cursing and cackling madly.

Thanks to being in attunement I clearly see as the currents of magic make their way through the floor as the wood creaks and twitches. I can tell right away that shit is no good.

"Don't get close!" I shout and the creatures fall a few steps back and away from the expanding magic effect of the spell. At the same time, I insta-cast the strongest modified version of Fireball I can manage without making the spell matrix fall apart, not once but thrice.

The Fireballs catch it unaware, striking dead on one after the other on its body. The reaction is several times more violent than I imagined would be. It caught fire so quickly that I had to shield my eyes from the sudden light. I could hear many things at the same time. The roaring fire, the handcuffs touching the ground after finally falling off my hands, the dropped staff of the Lich rolling away, the frightened roars of the Mingan, the Lich itself rolling on the floor, and its cries of agony- Does the undead feel pain then?

The moment the Fireball ignited the flammable Lich it also immediately expanded to burn up to the magic currents of the Lich's spell, and it didn't stop there, growing more by the second. Almost by reflex, at the same time, I opened the drawers as the fire started to invade the furniture in the wall. I quickly slid up the backpack and took all the papers inside the other drawer in my hands.

I ran behind Curite as she jumped through the window and heard the hatred-filled voice of the Lich as I jumped out myself.

"YOU!" Its long cry of wrath aiding my legs to move at prodigious speed. Leaving the clearing behind and finding many creatures joining us in the way I remember the Lich's true speed and peek a moment over my shoulder. The shrinking three stories building in the middle of nowhere already burning through the outside part of the facade but thankfully, no sign of any following moving corpse.

I ran for a minute more when I noticed a Mingan leader carrying by the neck the heavily injured one. Then, I heard the sound of an explosion. It was different from the Lich's sound-type spell. Whatever it was, it didn't stop us from our fearful retreat. I ran until bordering exhaustion. When I stopped, all the beasts stopped to catch their breath along with me too.

I am happy they came back to rescue me, even though they look as terrified as me.

Everything was intense but ended quickly.

Hopefully, this indeed ended and the bastard won't follow us.