On the way to my hideout I encountered a group of wandering skeletons, but the fight wasn’t challenging in the least. I already knew all their reactions and movement patterns. It was partially through gathering their crystals, partially through already having fought many of them. When absorbing the crystals of this group I discovered a few things in their memories. They had been patrolling the castle since their resurrection. I was able to gain some information about the castles general layout.

My base was somewhere in the area that was providing food for most of the inhabitants. The directions in which I had been advancing recently were the accommodations of the high ranking officials and royal family. Not far from there was the place where the undead had broken the wall and flooded into the building. There the undead were far more concentrated. A bit further to the left the throne room was located. There the necromancers seemed to have put up their camp. ‘I should probably stay away from this area. At least until I got a stronger body and more information about the nature of their troops.’ The rest of the memories were not enough to make a guess about the remaining parts of the castle.

However, there was something that I found very interesting. Close to the throne room the skeletons had seen an undead speaking with a necromancer. The undead had been a spectre. Spectres look similar to normal skeletons except that they don’t have anything below their spine. They can fly and are capable of using simple magic. Most likely the spectre had used magic to speak.

‘I was able to gain the knowledge of skeletons by absorbing their crystals. Maybe I could learn how to speak with magic, if I absorb the crystal of a spectre. But I don’t have any weapons to use against flying enemies. I will have to either find a dead spectre or get a body with raged weapons’ Neither seemed likely to happen soon since spectres weren’t common undead and hard to kill without magic, while a body with ranged weapons would need a lot of energy to use. At least 1400.

While thinking about spectres I returned to my hideout. After touching the stone tablet, which showed the number 412, I took the flasks I needed and began my way back. When I traversed the storage area I had an idea. I went into one of the storage rooms and took the ledger that had been used to keep track of their stock of supplies. I couldn’t carry any weapons while holding the flasks, the ledger and a pen, but since I had already killed all undead in the area I wasn’t too worried. Even if I were to encounter wandering skeletons, I could just take a different route.

In the end I got to the hidden room without any problems. Getting through the hole in the rubble was a bit complicated. because I could only use the legs while carrying multiple objects. Finally, I reached the door and entered the room. The girl was sitting beside the wounded boy and was chewing on a piece bread. She had recovered her sword while I was away.

When I entered the room she took hold of her sword and observed my movements closely, but she didn’t show aggressive behaviour. I moved a bit into their direction and laid down the flasks. Then I retreated some distance to give her the opportunity to take them without feeling threatened. She slowly approached the bottles and took them, while constantly keeping an eye out for me. Then she returned to where she had been sitting and inspected the flasks. It looked like she was using some kind of magic, but I could only assume it was to check them for poison or something along those lines.

After she seemed to have ascertained the contents, she started treating the boy. She took the bloody bandages around his chest off. The wound was truly horrifying. It was a broad cut across the entire breadth of his body. It started to bleed again as soon as the bandage was removed, so she hurriedly poured some of the ‘wound closing’ flasks content along the entire cut. It stopped the bleeding almost instantly. During the treatment the boy had woken up from the pain, but he didn’t let out a sound. Noticing that he was conscious, the girl made him drink almost half of the ‘recovery’ flask.

After confirming that he was okay she turned towards me again. I came closer, opened the ledger and began writing. ‘Greetings. May I inquire about your friends’ condition? I can’t speak, but I can hear, so you should just talk normally.’ It wasn’t the best way to start a conversation, but at that moment I couldn’t think of anything better. It was my first time communicating with someone.

At first the girl seemed surprised to see me writing in a book, but she soon got over it. She began speaking. “I think he will be fully healed in a few days. Thank you for your help” The boy who hadn’t noticed me until then looked at me curiously. At least he didn’t seem to be afraid. She hesitated for a moment before asking “What are you? Are you some kind of golem?” Questions that I too would have liked to know the answer to. ‘I don’t know what I am. I woke up not too long ago in a hidden room in the basement. I don’t remember anything prior to that moment. But many things point towards the fact that I have been created by someone.’

After reading this she asked another question: “Do you know what happened to the castle? Have the undead won?” After considering how I should answer I wrote ‘The entire castle seems to be filled with undead. You are the only survivors I know about, although there might be other rooms like this. The main army of the undead seems to have passed east after conquering this castle. The entire building is filled with skeletons, but they don’t pose a threat to me. The only dangerous undead are guarding the throne room, where the necromancers reside.’ After reading this she was silent for some time. It seemed like the news was rather shocking. I gave her time to accept her situation, before continuing the conversation.