“So, on to the billion dollar question.” I say as we walked the hallways of the crypt. As the monsters were already decaying, or weakened, it was a mere leisure walk, if a bit odd to have one beset in all sides by corpses.

“Billion dollar?” Madriel cocked her head to the side.

“Ah, an idiom or some such in my country. Adantel, he mentioned that he wanted Bastroll dead, not sealed. Why was that?”

This was a question has been tugging at my mind since. Why would they, the Wanderer’s Lodge, keep an existence like Bastroll alive when they had the chance the kill him? He was an entity far beyond their control, so it struck me weird.

She kept silent for a moment, as if chewing on her words before speaking.

“It wasn’t like that at first. We managed to seal him into his crystal prison and we awaited the return of one of our strongest adamantiums to strike the final blow, as he was the only one capable of doing so. That... was the plan.”

She grazed her dainty fingers on the solid, crypt walls as we walked, tracing them one by one.

“But, we learned of something. As we waited for that adamantium, monsters started appearing in this very crypt, monsters that were never here before. We had thought it was a last ditch effort of Bastroll, but it wasn’t. We learned that, just by his mere presence, even despite the prison, monsters would materialize daily by proximity.”

She then pointed at one of the decaying corpses of the chimeric beasts by the halls.

“Monsters like those. Eventually, the council learned of this, and a devious idea stuck to them. ‘Would it not be alright to capitalize on this?’, and so they did. It must have been quite the forbidden fruit to them. Infinite resources, and a training ground for new adventurers. They thought that as long as it was controlled, it would be a goose laying golden eggs.”

She hung her head and released a wry smile.

“Adantel and I were opposed to this idea, as were other elves. We instinctively knew it wasn’t the end, but they chose to ignore us.” She snapped at the stone walls.

“And so, we concocted a plan. For if they were not to take responsibility, then it fell to us elves, the original guardians, to uphold the order of the world. It was... a great excuse, to be honest. To be able to bring him back, even if not to this world.”

She gave me a cramped smile before stopping at a particular spot in the halls. A door frame, and one so eerily familiar.

After this doorway was our first obstacle, the fortified undead fortress. Although now it was nothing more than deserted sort, and instead was occupied with several adventurers staking the place for any sort of loot.

“Better company than a load of undead, to be sure.” I spoke and walked out. It was a long day, I’ll think about the rest tomorrow.

I showed my face to the rest of the war table, at least to tell them we were safe, and I also them I was tired, incredibly so that for the moment, I didn’t wish to report anything.

“That’s understandable.” Slavos nodded to my words, but many a guilder protested, saying that a report was of immediate concern.

In a theatrical sort of jest, I gave way to Madriel, who seemed no worse for wear despite the huge battle that she just did with Bastroll, with not even a trace of her haggard emotional baggage.

Maybe it was selfish of me to just unload everything unto her, but I was far too tired to give a damn anymore.

Ah, I almost forgot, but I took back the necklace from her. That thing’s too useful to be given away all willy-nilly. It would be useful, along with the ninja infiltrator set, if I wanted to get in somewhere.

I bid Madriel farewell and walked back to my tent.

It was already at the crack of dusk when I slept through dreamland. Whatever tomorrow brought was tomorrow me’s problem, or so I said to myself.

~ - ~

The next morning, the camp was abuzz in activity. Half the tents set up had already been packed, and most of the defenses have been collapsed. In other words, they had already confirmed our reports and had started to return to Blaine.

I gathered my belongings from the small tent and asked the guilders overseeing the place that I was done using it.

Actually, many of the adventurers that fought had already left and returned to Blaine, and the ones taking care of the rest were rookies and low-ranked adventurers eager to get a bit of coin. It made sense, after all, to hire their hands than to tire theirs.

At the center was still the large war tent set up. Busybodies still entered and left the tent. I opened the flap and entered only to see a chaotic scene of many guilders and adventurers arguing over the table, many of which were gold-ranked.

Probably a pay dispute, had to be.

I spotted Slavos standing at a corner of the tent, reading through paperwork with a metal tin in his other hand. He took a chug, and kept reading without a care for the constant screaming inside.

Prolly used to it, being an adviser in the king’s court and all. He should have experienced all sorts of screaming in the meeting room, just as I did once. I suppose that’s one thing we have in common, we left our past lives in search of a new one, though mine is involuntary.

I looked around once more, double-checking her presence, but unfortunately, she wasn’t in the tent.

“Slavos.” I turned to him. “Have you seen Madriel?”

“The elf? She mentioned she would be staying at the crypt, dangerous as it is still.” Slavos answered and took another chug from his metal tin. “Business with her?”

I smiled. “Same offer as yours. She’s that good.”

Slavos opened his eyes wide, but then nodded. “Having a reliable necromancer on our side is a must. And no one can be as reliable as her, far as I’ve heard.”

Slavos looked at the bickering adventurers and shook his head. “Even if I wanted to, your report will have to come at a later time.”

“Aye, I’ll see ya later. Hope you get this mess sorted out before I come back.” I smirked.

And so, I left the tent and returned to the dusty old crypt. Didn’t think I’d have a back-to-back return to this place.

~ - ~

Groups of undead still roamed the crypt, but they were of a much weaker sort than the ones from yesterday. They held no weapons and were equipped with no armor, so even lone gold-ranked adventurers could deal with them handily.

In my case, I just ignored them. With the use of the necklace of Aazlrin, it made it all nothing more than a leisure walk.

I walked straight towards the end, to Bastroll’s resting place. There was no need to search anywhere else, because that would be the only place that Madriel would visit in this decrepit ruin.

And lo and behold, at the very center of the room, where the chalk once laid, stood Madriel. She stared at the crimson throne in front of her, her eyes still and calm. There was a sort of... serenity to her standing figure. It was hard to describe.

“Hope I’m not bothering you.”

She perked up at the sound of my voice and abruptly turned around. There was a slight reddening under her eyes, and a streak of tears running down her cheeks. She hurriedly wiped it off and smiled towards me.

“Oh, sorry for bothering.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s fine. It was about time for me to break from my own reverie.” She smiled bitterly and walked forward. “I’m sure you wouldn’t be here without a good reason. What is it?”

I shrugged and gave out a wry smile.

“I’ll be brief then, as we’re both busy. Madriel, I want you in my party, want in?”

As if she had already expected the offer, she shook her head gently not a moment later.

“I thought that was what you came for. I apologize, but it’s a matter of ability.” She spoke softly.

“Are we too weak for you?”

“No, quite the opposite, actually. Slavos, Nis, and Sed, you guys are quite strong based only on individual ability. I fear that I won’t be able to catch up, especially now that I’ve been sapped of it.” She furrowed her brows, and crept up a bitter smile.

“I’ve spent years to accumulate enough of my vitality to purify Bastroll’s soul, nearly crippling myself in the process, and now I have to live with that. I can’t fight anymore, Sed.” She explained, choking up at the end.

“That’s... unfortunate. So you’ll live the rest of your eternal life not as an adventurer as you once were, but as a guilder?”

“Rubbing it in?” She gripped her fist together.

“No... just making sure.” I breathed out.

She relaxed and dropped her hands. “Not exactly. It’ll only be for up to a few decades until I recover to full. I can return to do what I love, to explore the developing world, but it’ll take a while.” She said with a smile, one so sure.

“That’s a bust then...” I shook my head and shrugged.

She giggled. “I apologize that my answer wasn’t what you expected.”

“Yeah, seriously. Apologize to me more.” I looked at her and scratched my head. “What would you do if it I told you that there’s a method to deal with that?”

It wasn’t really that much of a stretch and a surprise. Part of the main story and quest was to search for a legendary dragon, bleed it out, and purify its blood to use as a medicine. In a way, it was the ‘elixir’ of this world. Problem is, that knowledge had been lost to the ages, according to the lore.

There were only a few in-game texts that detail the use of dragonblood as a miracle cure, but many of them come off as myths and legends due to their flowery script.

Of course, such a convenient item was incredibly hard to manufacture. Hell, apart from that one quest, not another player had managed to create one more. Well, it was simply because we didn’t code it in.

Ah, I wish we did. If I had, I wouldn’t be having this problem.

“You mentioned ‘to full’, if you were to approximate, how powerful are you now, in terms of adventurer ranks?” I asked her and raised a brow.

“If I were to speak honestly... platinum at best.”

I slapped my thigh. “JOIN, please. That’s more than enough. Let me detail the list why I want you in our team.”

“First, you’re a necromancer. Having an expert in healing is vital to success. Second, you’re a long-lived elf that knows many things of the then and now. Third, you are an experienced adventurer that can teach us all about adventuring. Fourth, and arguably the most important, is that I can trust you to watch my back.”

I started to list down all the qualities I wanted in a party member. If Slavos acted as the reliable big brother with tactical intellect and a knowledge of all things political and magical, then Madriel was the big sister with the practical experience and care. Not to mention the fact that I can at least ascertain their honesty. Sure, she may be extremely weakened, but a back-line wasn’t supposed to be in the front-lines anyway.

“Your experience as a healer matters more than your combat prowess. Besides, we can already fill that up with our strength, no problemo. Please, join us, and we could even find a way to clear up your current vitality problems while at it.

The last part is an eventuality. I still remember how to trigger it like it was yesterday, only because it was my own project. I designed and wrote the main quest, there was no way I would forget my own crowning achievement. Well, maybe not the writing, but definitely AdOn.

I offered my hand to her.